By Kim Jong-chan
Political Editor
Political regionalism was the sole voting pattern in previous elections. But this changed to some extent by region in the fifth local elections on June 2.
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) easily won mayoral and gubernatorial races in Daegu, Ulsan and North Gyeongsang Province, but the situation changed in Busan where the party managed to win the mayoral election. Its candidate Hur Nam-sik won reelection with 55.4 percent of the total eligible votes, while Kim Jung-kil of the main Democratic Party (DP) garnered the remaining 45.6 percent.
The margin sharply narrowed to 9.8 percentage points from 42.4 percentage points in the 2006 election, an indication that regionally-based politics that the country has been struggling to overcome is fading away.
In addition, the DP won over the governing party in the gubernatorial election in Gangwon Province where ruling party candidates had fared well. Residents of the province which borders North Korea used to place priority on security issues during campaigns and vote for ruling party candidates.
As expected, the DP swept the Jeolla provinces, its traditional stronghold. But this time, GNP candidates did better than in previous local polls, by winning 14.2 percent of the total eligible votes in Gwangju, 13.4 percent in South Jeolla and 18.2 percent in North Jeolla. No GNP candidates have won a double-digit approval rating in the local polls there since local autonomy was introduced back in 1995.
When it comes to the Liberty Forward Party (LFP), it won the Daejeon mayoral election. But overall, the election results were disappointing for the party as it had high expectations for the South Chungcheong gubernatorial contest where Sejong City voters were expected to carry the party to victory. The DP clinched the seat.
Lee Hoi-chang, who unsuccessfully ran for president three times ― twice on the ticket of the GNP and lastly as an independent ― and people mostly from the Chungcheong region, created the LFP months before the last National Assembly elections in April 2008, thus being accused of resorting to regionally-based politics. A deserter from the GNP, independent Lee finished third in the 2007 presidential poll. But in the Chungcheong region alone, he placed first.
There have been no ruling party lawmakers in the Jeolla provinces and no opposition legislators in the Gyeongsang region. In an effort to address deep-rooted regionalism, a presidential panel proposed last week that the current electoral system of selecting one lawmaker from each district be replaced with a scheme under which two legislators or more are picked from a larger constituency.
If such a larger district is incepted, DP candidates could have a better chance of being elected in the southeastern Gyeongsang provinces, traditional stronghold of the conservative GNP, and vice versa for GNP candidates in the southwestern Jeolla region, home turf of the liberal DP.
To remedy the current malpractice, such a change is required not only to meet the needs of our communities in this modern, 21st-century digital era, featuring improvements in transportation and communication networks, but also boost efficiency.
Any change of the electoral system is subject to approval by the National Assembly. Few lawmakers, regardless of party affiliation, are overly likely to support such a reform which could deal a blow to their bid for reelection. Most legislators will want to nestle in the status quo.
Regionally-based politics is presumed to have been created during the authoritarian Park Chung-hee administration in the 1960s and 1970s. Parties tried to take advantage of kinship and regionalism to woo voter support during campaigns.
Since the end of the three Kims' (Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung and Kim Jong-pil) era in the late 1990s, political regionalism has been waning in elections to pick local administrative chiefs rather than in the presidential polls or the National Assembly elections.
The parliamentary by-elections are scheduled for July 28. Nothing other than a mature citizenship can help eliminate the decades-old political maneuvering of returning to regionally-based politics, which has eroded the foundation of the country's development.