China News Service, Seoul, March 8 (Liu Xu and Liu Jingni) Voting for the 20th presidential election in South Korea will officially start at 6 am local time on the 9th.
How to ensure safe voting during the epidemic?
How effective is the joint promotion of a single candidate?
Who will be the winner of the two party candidates?
As the general election vote is about to officially open, a series of suspense will also be solved.
On the eve of the peak of the epidemic, how to balance elections and epidemic prevention?
At present, the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in South Korea has not diminished.
According to the latest forecast by experts, in the middle of this month, the number of newly confirmed cases in South Korea in a single day will reach up to 350,000.
South Korea's Central Epidemic Prevention and Control Headquarters raised the risk of the new crown epidemic in South Korea to the highest level on the 7th.
In the current epidemic situation, on the one hand, the presidential candidates of various parties have made certain adjustments to their publicity activities, choosing to make full use of technology to conduct "non-face-to-face canvassing" while conducting traditional offline gatherings; In order to reduce the risk of infection, the number of voters who chose to vote in advance on March 4 and 5 also hit a record high, with a final turnout rate of 36.93%, 10.87 percentage points higher than the 2017 presidential election.
In terms of protecting the voting rights of people diagnosed with the new crown, according to the amendment to the "Public Office Election Act" reviewed and approved by the South Korean National Assembly on February 14, confirmed new crown cases and quarantined people can vote on the second day before the presidential election (March 5) 17 The right to vote will be exercised from 18:00 to 19:30 on the polling day (March 9).
However, the long queues in front of the polling place beforehand and the chaotic scene when people who were diagnosed with the new crown on the 5th voted on the spot also made the Korean media worry that there would be a greater "panic" on the polling day.
In this regard, the South Korean Central Election Management Committee announced on the 7th local time the improvement plan for voting for people diagnosed with the new crown.
According to the plan, people diagnosed with the new crown and close contacts can write their votes in the ordinary voting booth and put their votes in the ballot box from 18:00 to 19:30 on the 9th, that is, after ordinary voters have completed their votes.
There will be no steps carried out by any staff in the whole process.
However, the corresponding personnel must also abide by the rules of wearing KF94 masks, traveling by foot, private car, anti-epidemic taxi, etc., avoiding contact and talking with personnel other than staff, and returning to the isolation place immediately after voting.
Although the Central Election Management Commission responded quickly to the deficiencies in epidemic prevention revealed in the absentee ballot on the 5th, under the pressure of public opinion, the opposition party still pointed the finger at the ruling party, and the epidemic prevention measures during the election became the two parties. competitive arena.
The two major candidates are riddled with black material, who will break the game and win?
For a long time, the two popular candidates, Lee Jae-myung, the ruling party's candidate for the Democratic Party, and Yoon Sek-yue, the presidential candidate of the National Power Party, have been evenly matched, and so far there has been no "front runner". This situation is extremely rare in previous general elections in South Korea. .
To the Korean public opinion and the public regret, one of the reasons why the two are inseparable is that both sides are caught in rumors and scandals, and they attack each other based on this.
The "Korea Times" once called the election an "unpopular presidential election", while the "Central Daily News" directly called the election "dog blood".
The ruling party's co-democratic candidate, the so-called "successor" of the current President Moon Jae-in, Lee Jae-ming, was born in a civilian and was twice elected mayor of Seongnam after entering politics.
In the 2018 local elections in South Korea, Lee Jae-myung was elected governor of Gyeonggi Province with a high vote.
In 2020, in the face of Xintiandi Church's refusal to cooperate with the government's epidemic prevention investigation, Li Zaiming directly dispatched civil servants to investigate and punish the church headquarters, which was well received by the public.
However, since the campaign period, Lee Jae-myung himself has been revealed to be involved in corruption-related incidents in the real estate development project in Dazhuang-dong, Seongnam City, Gyeonggi-do, his son was exposed to be suspected of online gambling, and then his wife was accused of public power and private use and forced to apologize publicly. .
Although its approval rating has been on the rise due to events such as the amnesty of former President Park Geun-hye, it has not been as overwhelming as Moon Jae-in in 2017.
The candidate of the largest opposition party, National Power Party, Yin Xiyue, graduated from the Faculty of Law of Seoul National University. She served as a district prosecutor in many places in Korea, and made outstanding contributions to the investigation of Park Geun-hye's "confidence in politics". In 2019, she was promoted to South Korea by Moon Jae-in. Attorney General of the Grand Prosecutor's Office.
In 2021, Yin Xiyue, who was born in the procuratorial system and has no political experience, announced that she would join the Korean conservative National Power Party and participate in the presidential election.
However, Yin Xiyue was also burdened by her family's "black materials" during the election campaign. From her mother-in-law's imprisonment for defrauding insurance, to her wife's accusation of falsifying her resume, and then deep into the "7-hour recording door", although Yin Xiyue has the largest conservative force in the opposition party The support of , and its support rate has also been affected by negative news for a time, and it only rose slightly in February this year.
Li Zaiming and Yin Xiyue both exposed each other's shortcomings, and held accountable when they seized the cause, but repeatedly avoided topics such as taxation and employment that had lowered their support rate, "falling into the temptation to deceive the people to get votes."
In this regard, the Korean media said, "In our general election, we see no prospects, only inferior means."
At present, the countdown to the general election has entered the last day. Li and Yin will go to Seoul's Cheonggyecheon and City Hall Square respectively, and wait until 24:00 when the statutory election period ends for the final "sprint" before the general election.
With twists and turns, what is the effectiveness of candidate simplification?
On the 3rd of this month, the plot of Yin Xiyue and the Nationalist Party candidate An Zhexiu jointly promoting a single candidate finally came to an end with the cooperation between the two parties after twists and turns.
The day before, Lee Jae-myung also announced a simplistic cooperation with No. 12 candidate Kim Dong-yeon.
According to the relevant regulations of the Central Election Management Commission of South Korea, the 3rd to 19:30 local time on the 9th is divided into an "unpredictable period". During this time period, it is prohibited to publish any election-related poll results and cite the results of polls conducted after the 3rd. It is reported that the effect of Li Zaiming and Yin Xiyue's successful simplification can no longer be tested through intuitive data.
YTN TV station analyzed that after Yin Xiyue and An Zhexiu completed a "dramatic unification" the day before absentee voting, the general election fell into chaos.
Yin Xiyuefang called the move "a tailwind for regime change." Instead of quitting, An Zhexiu continued to build a better country by changing direction.
However, Justice Party candidate Shen Sang-sang criticized this on the 6th, saying, "This is not unified politics, but the surrender of a small party to a big party." A civic group in Incheon also protested with lighted candles on the same day. In an interview with Korean media, they said that they, who originally planned to vote for An Zhexiu, are now extremely disappointed, and believe that An Zhexiu's move is not for the people, but to surrender to the big political party for their own selfish interests.
The Common Democratic Party, which defines its party as a seat-sharing party, said that An Zhexiu’s move may help the Common Democratic Party, not the National Power Party, to turn against the wind, because An Zhexiu is pouring cold water on the expectations of political reform, including the multi-party system. .
"Asia Daily" also analyzed that, from a numerical point of view, the total support rate of Yin and An significantly exceeds that of Li Zaiming.
But the combination of Yin and An may also have the opposite effect, because it will promote more unity among progressive supporters and choose to support Lee Jae-myung in order to continue the progressive government.
According to the current situation, in a high probability, no matter who Li and Yin end up in the Blue House, the difference between the two's votes may be very small, and the final answer will be revealed through the votes cast on the 9th.
(over)