|
|
Change Your Life! |
South Koreans vote in parliamentary elections |
|
News
|
April 14, 2000
SEOUL, APR 13 (AP) - South Koreans voted Thursday for a new Parliament in an election that could affect the two trademark policies of President Kim Dae-jung: economic reforms and engagement with North Korea.
In balmy spring weather, voters stood in long lines at polling stations in Seoul and surrounding areas. Radio and television stations repeatedly broadcast instructions urging people to vote.
Three hours after the polls opened at 6 a.m. (2100 GMT), election officials reported an average voter turnout of 11 percent nationwide, 0.9 percent lower than the turnout reported at the same time in 1996 elections.
Polls were to close at 6 p.m. (0900 GMT). President Kim voted at a school auditorium near his residence in Seoul and urged people to vote.
"Everything depends on voters. If anything is wrong, voters can correct it by voting," he said. Thousands of people who were evacuated from their homes in an eastern coastal region because of spreading forest fires were able to vote without interruption, said Yonhap, the national news agency.
Thousands of local government officials and army reservists were ordered to vote early and join in fighting the forest fires, which have raged for a week. Several hundred homes were burned and all schools in the Samchuk and Ulchin areas were shut down.
Three days before the election, the rival Koreas agreed to hold the first-ever summit by their leaders in June. Many political analysts said it was unclear how that would affect the tight race. With up to 40 percent of potential voters still undecided, Kim's ruling party was running neck-and-neck with the main opposition Grand National Party.
Monday's announcement of the June 12-14 summit brought opposition criticism of the timing. "The South-North summit, announced only three days before the election, is a despicable political conspiracy," said Lee Hoi-chang, head of the opposition party, which is the largest party in the outgoing Parliament with 129 seats.
The ruling Millennium Democratic Party, with 103 seats in the outgoing Parliament, is unlikely to emerge from voting with an absolute majority, analysts say. That would force it to find a coalition partner.
A total of 1,040 candidates are vying for 227 seats to be filled by direct vote. Another 46 members will be chosen by proportional representation system, which counts the total number of votes to each party.
Major South Korean political parties depend on regional support, so policies have less influence on voting than local connections.
The summit announcement has considerably muzzled opposition criticism that his "sunshine" policy has failed to produce concessions from the North.
Still, some voters remained skeptical. "I think the summit is only a show for elections. And whatever outcome the summit would have, it would take a long time for us to see," said Kim Jong-tae, 46, an architect.
The summit could bring the ruling party votes from those with relatives in North Korea who hope it will bring progress on resuming family reunifications, halted since 1985.
Millions of North Koreans went to South Korea after the 1945 division of the Korean peninsula and during the 1950-53 Korean War, and most have lost touch with their families in the North.
Kim has said family reunions will be top on the agenda of his summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, to be held in the North's capital, Pyongyang.
Reform of South Korea's banking sector and family-owned conglomerates, or chaebol, is another pressing issue for Kim's government.
About a dozen of the conglomerates collapsed under mounds of debts in 1997, forcing South Korea to accept a record dlrs 58 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.
|