Election Day

Update: Park Geun-hye will be the next president of South Korea!

It’s election day in South Korea. Most schools and business are off (of course we aren’t though…ah joys of working in the academy world.) In South Korea, the president serves a single five-year term won through a first-past-the-post system (aka the most votes wins.) Perhaps it is a bit of a personal question, but I have been shameless in using the innocent foreigner card to ask Korean friends about the election and who they will support. Sometimes they are rather forthcoming. Other times they shush me and tell me it’s a secret…but with a little gentle prodding give it up anyway.

There are two major candidates, Park Geun-hye, a female candidate from the incumbent conservative party, and Moon Jae-in, a male candidate from the liberal party. It’s been a tight presidential race the past several months, perhaps a slight lead going toward Park. And it hasn’t been without its fair share of mudslinging.

Interestingly, Park is the daughter of a past iron-fisted Korean dictator. She has had to publicly apologize for abuses committed during her father’s rule, even though is he is esteemed throughout Korea for developing the Korean economy. Moon is a human rights lawyer and former student activist actually jailed for opposing Park’s dictatorship in the 1970s. Park would be the first female president and pledges to close the wide gender income equality gap. A third independent but left-leaning contender dropped out in the past couple of months in support of Moon to avoid splitting the left-leaning vote.

According to my most unscientific sample, younger people are more likely to support Moon while the older generation leans toward Park. The swing voters are people are the people in the 40-50 age range. I have tried to distinguish the candidates’ policy differences by asking my adult students and Korean friends. I’ve been told the candidates’ positions are quite similar but rather have opposing philosophies…this I’m still deciphering. The occasional language barrier make news articles my most reliable source.

Nearly every Korean I have talked with seemed pleased by Obama’s reelection in November. Despite this, some Koreans who like Obama still prefer Park in the South Korean election. My understanding is that the American conservative party is much farther to the right than in Korea…but the possibility of hypocrisy has also crossed my mind. I don’t know enough to make any definitive statements.

Moon proposes to shorten the compulsory military time for men from 21 months to 18 months, which opponents claim will significantly weaken South Korean military strength. Both candidates promise to crack down on domestic abuse, which is traditionally considered to be a family issue. Both candidates want to regulate the big chaebols (big conglomerates that dominate the Korean economy: Samsung, Hyundai, LG, Lotte, SK) though Moon seems to prefer more stringent conditions. Reducing monthly bills and tuition is also on his agenda. Park pledges to increase monthly pensions for the elderly. People I have talked to feel that there are many campaign promises being made that the candidates will not be able to follow through with. When it comes down to it, certain promises might not be financially possible.

BBC wrote that “economic issues have dominated the election build-up, including tough competition to find employment for young people. Both candidates have promised to boost social welfare spending, amid rising income inequality and concern over the dominance of big business.” North Korea has not been as central to the election as you might think. The current president, Lee Myung-bak, took a hard-lined stance toward North Korea, discontinuing investment and aid until compliance with nuclear weapon policy was reached. This was a drastic swing from the 1998-2008 ‘sunshine policy’ of previous presidents where “billions of dollars of South Korean investment, aid and goods flowed into the North to encourage it to shed its isolation and hostility, and to try to reduce the economic gap between the two Koreas and the cost of reunification in the future” according to the New York Times.

Candidates Moon and Park both pledge a more moderate stance, since President Lee’s position toward North Korea has not curbed nuclear weapon proliferation and North Korea remains highly penalized by his policy. However, Moon wants to keep diplomatic channels open making his policy more in line with the sunshine policy than Park’s stance is.

The results tonight!