» Two leading GNP presidential hopefuls Park Geun-hye, left, and Lee Myung-bak, right, and GNP Chairman Kang Jae-sup, center.

With the 19th anniversary of The Hankyoreh’s foundation on May 15, the paper surveyed the ideological positions of hopefuls in December’s presidential elections. According to the survey, potential candidates from the main opposition Grand National Party as well as the pro-government Uri Party all have an inclination toward conservatism.

The survey, conducted between May 4 and 10, analyzed the ideological positions of the current 11 major potential presidential hopefuls on a scale between 1 and 10. The survey was jointly conducted by Incheon University professor Lee Joon-han and the U.S.’s University of Tennessee-Knoxville professor Hwang Won-jae. They used a Markov chain Monte Carlo method to center the results on the figure of 5.5; a score above this number signals a more conservative policy direction.

The results: former head of the Grand National Party (GNP) Park Geun-hye (7.9), former Seoul Mayor and GNP member Lee Myung-bak (7.5), former Gyeonggi Provincial Governor and ex-GNP member Sohn Hak-kyu (7.1), Rep. Won Hee-ryong of the GNP (6.6), former head of the Uri Party Chung Dong-young (6.0), ex-Uri Party member and independent lawmaker Chun Jung-bae (6.0), Rep. Go Jin-hwa of the GNP (5.9), Rep. Kim Geun-tae of the Uri Party (5.8), Rep. Roh Hoe-chan of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) (3.8), Rep. Shim Sang-jeung of the DLP (3.7), and Rep. Kwon Young-ghil of the DLP (3.0).

Of potential candidates from the non-GNP party circle, Rep. Chung Dong-young, the former head of the Uri Party, is most conservative in economic policy with a score of 6.8 in the field, and the independent lawmaker Chun Jung-bae is most conservative in social policy in this group with a 5.7 in that area. Sohn Hak-kyu, the former Gyeonggi Provincial Governor, earned a 7.4 in economic policy and had an overall score of 7.1, making him the most conservative among current non-GNP members.

Those candidates affiliated with the main opposition conservative Grand National Party showed the highest scores in several subject areas. Lee Myung-bak turned to be most conservative along with Sohn Hak-kyu in economy policy with their scores of 7.4 in that area, and Park Geun-hye, the former head of the Grand National Party, earned a score of 8.2 in social policy, the most conservative among all hopefuls regardless of party.

Regarding a recently concluded free trade agreement between South Korea and the United States, the three hopefuls of the Democratic Labor Party and Kim Geun-tae of the Uri Party opposed it, while the remaining hopefuls expressed support for the U.S. free trade deal. Independent lawmaker Chun Jung-bae fell somewhere in the middle, saying, "While I agree on the need for free trade agreements, I oppose the current deal because it has no benefits and will not help national interest."

Professor Lee of the survey team said, "Potential presidential hopefuls have an inclination toward conservatism, in particular shown in the sectors of economy and society."

Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]