By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Major political parties have been mapping out their core campaign strategies focusing on soaring wheat prices and college tuition fees to win the working class vote in the April 9 elections.
The parties' unusual interest in specific bread-and-butter matters is an outcome of their decade-long search for tactics that will help them win the hearts and minds of low-income voters.
A Dong A Ilbo newspaper survey last year found 55.2 percent of citizens answered they were either low-income citizens (47.9 percent) or people living below the poverty line (7.3 percent).
The same poll showed 42 percent of respondents considered themselves middle-income families.
To win the majority of seats in the elections, major parties need to target the people who, they claim, are in this socio-economic class.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) share the view that their target group of low-income families will be hit hard by rising tuition fees.
The cost of college tuition has gone up more than three times the average rate of inflation, and that for 50 universities located in and around Seoul was hiked by 7 percent this semester.
GNP Spokeswoman Na Kyung-won said party leaders asked the government to work on ways of expanding scholarships and low interest rate loans for college students from working class families.
Rep. Na said the party urged the government to produce effective, feasible ways to realize their plan in the near future.
UDP Spokesman Woo Sang-ho addressed the same concern.
Rep. Woo said: ``The UDP will form a task force team to produce policy responses to cope with the negative impact of rising tuition costs on the livelihood of working class citizens.''
He also said his party ``will also craft countermeasures against inflation.''
President Lee Myung-bak, apparently mindful of the governing GNP's efforts to secure the majority of seats in the elections, also expressed deep concern over the detrimental effects of inflation on lower-class citizens.
Lee addressed the inflation issue as a core public policy item in the first official meeting with Cheong Wa Dae staff.
``Wheat prices have risen by 22 percent on the global crops market. This is a serious problem as many people here consume flour as a core ingredient of their food,'' Lee said.
Flour is a major ingredient in ramyon, which is a widely popular food among working class people.
GNP lawmakers whose electoral districts are in rural areas joined forces to woo farmers to pave the way for their victory in the elections.
Rep. Kwon Oh-Eul told reporters that the GNP plans to help farmers who are expected to be the losers in a free trade agreement with the United States.
Kwon said his party will create an agriculture fund worth 10 trillion won to help farmers heavily in debt plus other supportive measures for those living in the countryside.