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August 20. The party convention was held at the KINTEX Convention Center in Goyang

By Cho Hye-jeong, staff reporter 　

Park Geun-hye, 60, is the New Frontier Party presidential nominee.

The lawmaker finished first by a huge margin at the party’s convention to select its nominee for the 18th presidential election, which took place on August 20 at the KINTEX convention center in Goyang, Gyeonggi province. Her coronation comes 14 years after her first foray into politics, a 1998 by-election for a National Assembly seat.

She is the first female candidate for a major party in the history of constitutional government, and the first child of a former president. Her father was Park Chung-hee, who was president from 1962 until his assassination in 1979.

Park spent the last five years licking wounds from her primary battle against eventual nominee, and current president, Lee Myung-bak in the last election. The margin of victory this time was much larger than the 1.5 percent by which Lee squeaked out the nomination on Aug. 20, 2007. Once the decision was out, the smile never left her face.

Gyeonggi Province. (by Lee Jeong-woo

But a big win in the primary doesn’t necessarily translate into a strong edge in the presidential race. Park is one step closer to the Blue House, but she still has a lot of work to do before she can make a victory speech on the evening of Dec. 19.

The two main hurdles for her are her own image and her father. Park has had the top support among presidential contenders since the time Lee took office, but a closer look shows some potential concerns.

She enjoys unquestioned support from voters in the Yeongnam region, those aged 50 and older, and those who identify as conservative. In contrast, she has met a cold reception in the greater Seoul area, with people aged 20 to 40, and among moderates and nonpartisan types. Her image as rigid and uncommunicative poses an obstacle to her winning over new support.

She compounded her image as lacking generosity with a recent dustup over the rules for holding NFP primaries.

“What’s toughest for Park Geun-hye is when her own side is out to get her,” said one of her advisers. “She’s already neck and neck with Ahn Cheol-soo in support ratings, but things aren’t going to get any easier where her side is attacking her as ‘uncommunicative’ or ‘hung up on her own invincibility.’”

Korea Society Opinion Institute chief analyst Yoon Hee-woong said her image, which has become more of a factor in recent months, and her active defense of the 1961 military coup that put her father in power could hurt her with younger voters.

“These things clash the historical perceptions of the twenty-to-forties, and they could trigger a sense of emotional distaste,” Yoon warned.

“You can win general and local elections if you just rally your support base, but you need [younger voters] to win a presidential election with a large turnout,” he said.

Meanwhile, the dark shadow of her father’s presence is likely to become more and more of a liability as the election draws closer. The opposition is certainly planning to make hay from it.

Park Geun-hye’s attitude toward the 1961 coup, her father’s authoritarian Yushin policies, and the multitude of suppressions of democracy and violations of human rights that characterized his 18-year rule as a dictatorship can be summed up as “Forget the past and look to the future.” She has shied away from any apologies for the darker aspects of the history, historical reappraisals, or investigations. On July 16, she declared the coup to be “unavoidable and the best possible choice.” Her approval rating subsequently dropped by 4.5 percentage points in a JoongAng Ilbo survey, and 3.4 percentage points in a Real Meter poll.

“She’s clashing with the historical perceptions of the twenty-to-forties, who were taught that the events of 1961 were a coup d’etat,” said Yoon. “In particular, swing voters in their forties who lived through the democracy movement may bristle at her characterization of historical events.”

Park’s wing has effectively been an opposition party to the Lee administration during its term, so she isn’t hurt by association with it as other ruling party presidential contenders have been in the past. But as the administration nears the end of its term, she could still find herself weighed down by the effects of its lapses, including worsening economic conditions, poor relations with Japan and other countries, and tensions with Pyongyang. Common wisdom holds that a current president doesn’t have the power to make someone president, but he does the power to prevent a candidate from getting elected. Figuring that out is Park’s homework now.

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