China News Service, Beijing, March 9th: "The most difficult to predict in history" Who can lead the next five years when the Korean general election begins?
Author Guan Na
Voting begins today in South Korea's 20th presidential election.
The three candidates—the ruling party Common Democratic Party Lee Jae-myung, the largest opposition party National Power Yin Xiyue, and the justice party Shen Sang-sang have entered the final stage of competition.
In this "unpopular" election campaign, so far there has been no "front runner" with an absolute advantage.
In this election, which has been hailed as an "upgraded fog game" by the Korean media, who can lead South Korea's next five years?
A man looks at posters of presidential candidates on the street in Seoul, South Korea, March 3.
The "Mist Game" has been upgraded again
Li Zaiming, who is regarded as the popular "successor" of the current President Moon Jae-in, former Attorney General Yin Xiyue who once sent two former presidents to prison, Ahn Zhexiu, who has run for elections many times, and Shen Xiangxiong, who has accompanied the general election, once formed the South Korean general election. "Big Four" situation.
Lee Jae-myung served as the governor of Gyeonggi Province in 2018 and served as the mayor of Seongnam City.
In 2020, in order to prevent the spread of the new crown epidemic, he "copied" the headquarters of the Xintiandi Church in South Korea in one fell swoop.
Yin Xiyue has served as the head of the Seoul Central District Attorney General and the South Korean Attorney General.
In 2021, Yin Xiyue stepped into politics after resigning as attorney general.
On March 2, local time, the South Korean presidential candidate on the TV screen.
Six days before the official polling day of the election, An Zhexiu withdrew and supported Yin Xiyue; Shen Xiangxiu's approval rate was relatively backward, and the pattern of competition between the two powers has been determined.
But as of the last moment before the general election vote, multiple polls showed that Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Sek-yue's support ratings were in close quarters. This election is also considered to be the most unpredictable in South Korea in recent decades.
"Unpopular presidential election"
In addition to being unpredictable, the South Korean general election was described by South Korean media as an "unpopular presidential election".
For months, Lee Jae-myung and Yin Xiyue have attacked each other "without leaving a dead end", turning the election into a "scandal contest".
Li Zaiming was deeply involved in a 2015 bribery scandal involving real estate development. The National Power Party accused him of being the "mastermind behind the real estate corruption case". Although he firmly denied it, his approval rate was still affected.
Data map: Li Zaiming.
It was also revealed that Li Zaiming’s son had uploaded multiple posts about buying and selling poker chips on a card game website from January 2019 to July 2020.
He also posted that he had visited a brick-and-mortar casino in the metropolitan area.
On the other hand, Yin Xiyue's team is also "full of loopholes". In 2007, his wife was suspected of falsely reporting personal experience and award-winning results when applying for a university teaching position, which made him, the former "sword bearer" of the procuratorial system, suddenly collapsed his "just" personality. .
Data map: Yin Xiyue.
All of the above have made the Korean media evaluate this election as a strange election without enthusiasm, hope, and emotion under the "worst of the worst" circumstances.
In this election, various candidate scandals emerged one after another to crowd the headlines, and core issues such as policy proposals and policy agendas were blurred.
South Korean voters can only "take the lesser of the two evils" and linger in various camps. In the end, the election to be elected will not be the most popular candidate, but among all the dissatisfied candidates. Choose relatively less obnoxious candidates.
Three major challenges may become "hot potato"
Too busy attacking each other, Lee Jae-myung and Yin Xiyue did not present a clear vision of their own to voters. What is even more frustrating is that the two candidates did not propose practical and effective policy proposals to protect the people during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
The two sides continue to fight, and it is difficult to predict who will be elected.
South Korean voters line up outside the polling station in Sajik-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Liu Xu
But whether it is the "regime change" of the ruling party or the "party change" replaced by the opposition party, after the new South Korean president takes office, he will face three major challenges -
The first is the new crown epidemic.
At present, the Omicron strain is spreading rapidly in South Korea, and the confirmed cases and deaths have hit new highs. However, the peak of the current round of the epidemic has not yet appeared.
If the epidemic continues to worsen, the government's epidemic prevention policies may be criticized.
Second, the new president needs to consider how to handle the DPRK policy under the Korea-US alliance. A little carelessness will affect the future geopolitical pattern of Northeast Asia.
In addition, how to create a harmonious economic environment for people's livelihood while boosting the economy while carrying out territorial planning, curbing housing prices, and reducing unemployment, these series of issues will become the "hot potato" for the new president.
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