hankyoreh

The United New Democratic Party’s primary finished on October 14 following a series of twists and turns. The UNDP was able to save face by holding a mobile primary, a vote-by-phone gimmick that dramatically increased voter turnout and raised the hope that it would also generate excitement, but controversy over the illegal mobilization of voters tainted the race. The party’s desire to impress people and collect votes through a “beautiful primary” has come to nothing.

The plan was to hold a national primary in which 3 million Koreans would participate. The thinking went that if many ordinary people were to vote, the organizations of influential politicians would be unable to exercise their influence over the race. The reality, however, was different. As the views of a number of political factions have come to light in relation to the unification of the party behind a single candidate, the progress toward unifying the party was slow and could not attract the attention of the people.

A total of 1.78 million people cast their votes in the UNDP primary, which ended yesterday, but most of them were thought to have been mobilized by the candidates themselves, rather than casting their votes freely. As a result, voter turnout hovered at around 20 percent and the UNDP failed to collect the 3 million votes it had touted would constitute a ‘perfect’ election.

The UNDP primary was carried out in several stages. Beginning on September 15, voting was to be carried out at polling stations in 15 regions across the country, however, internal feuding among the leading candidates over illegal voter-registrations led the party to shut the primary down mid-way and change its tactics. Following the conclusion of voting in the eighth round, voting in the remaining regions was collapsed into a single round of voting, which was held yesterday. The winner of the UNDP primary will be chosen based on the results of the first eight rounds of regional voting, Sunday’s voting, ballots cast via three rounds of mobile phone voting and a public opinion poll. The results of the primary will be tabulated and announced today.

The primary was initially led by former Gyeonggi governor Sohn Hak-kyu, but former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young has caught up somewhat since the inclusion of mobile voting and the two are neck and neck going into the final tally. The winner of the UNDP primary will go on to face conservative Grand National Party candidate, Lee Myung-bak, who thus far has held a commanding lead in opinion polls, the candidate from the splinter Millennium Democratic Party and independent candidate Moon Kook-hyun, formerly of Yuhan-Kimberly Ltd.

The primary was tainted in part by the mobilization of fake voters. Investigation into this controversy, in which Chung Dong-young’s campaign staff was alleged to have ordered illegal voter-registrations, including the fake registration of President Roh Moo-hyun, is still under way. In the process of collecting votes, there were physical scuffles among the supporters of each presidential hopeful’s camp. The presidential contenders, with the exception of its top performer, Sohn Hak-kyu, refused to participate in the primary elections and urged the party to revise the way the primary was being carried out.

The UNDP was dealt another blow in that there was virtually increase in the popularity of its candidates after it changed its primary rules. Its strategy to cultivate a contender who can compete with the GNP’s Lee Myung-bak has failed, despite strong demand from within the party to designate a single candidate.

UNDP lawmakers, such as Won Hye-young, Lee Kye-an, Lee Sang-min and Moon Byung-ho, have urged the party to unite with independent Moon Kook-hyun, saying that his position as a candidate who promotes peace, democracy and reform would lead to the overall success of the party in the primary. They apparently believe that the damage done to Chung over the mobilization of voters indicates that he will be unable to win the election.

Another question is whether the pro-Roh faction, led by Lee Hae-chan, will participate actively in the contest between the winners of the primary, largely expected to be Chung, and Lee Myung-bak. Their dilemma is that they do not want to see either Chung or Sohn Hak-kyu, a former GNP member, win the party’s nomination. Accordingly, some observers think that the pro-Roh forces will support Moon, the independent candidate, making matters worse for the UNDP.

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