General Election D-1, Unprecedented 'Joint Campaign Rallies' and Competition in 'Banners and Online'

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Wondara] The April 15 general election is expected to be held with unprecedented 'joint campaigns' and an 'online and banner war.' The Democratic Party and the United Future Party have announced joint campaigns with proportional representation parties, and face-to-face election campaigns are expected to be minimized due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

On the 1st, the Democratic Party reorganized its lineup into a 'one-top system' with Standing Joint Election Countermeasures Committee Chairman Lee Nak-yeon following the hospitalization of Representative Lee Hae-chan. Originally, Representative Lee was scheduled to attend a joint election countermeasures committee meeting with the Together Citizens Party at the Suwon Gyeonggi Provincial Party Office that morning, but he was absent due to overwork on the 27th of last month. A spokesperson for Chairman Lee said, "Chairman Lee plans to conduct support campaigns nationwide." After presiding over the joint meeting, Chairman Lee plans to visit Chuncheon, Gangwon Province on the 3rd to support local candidates. Previously, Chairman Lee visited Cheongju, Chungbuk on the 24th of last month and then visited constituencies in the Honam region on the 29th.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The United Future Party is launching its campaign under a 'two-top system' with General Election Countermeasures Chairman Kim Jong-in and Representative Hwang Kyo-ahn. Chairman Kim began by visiting Representative Hwang’s Jongno-gu campaign office on the 29th of last month and has been directly visiting and encouraging candidates’ campaign offices mainly in the metropolitan area. After the conservative unification, Representative Yoo Seung-min, who had remained silent, is also supporting metropolitan area candidates such as Jisang-wook and Kim Woong without holding any party position.

This general election is expected to look different from previous elections. First, both parties have decided to hold joint campaigns with their respective proportional alliance parties. The Democratic Party held the first joint meeting with the Citizens Party that morning and plans to continue regional joint meetings nationwide, including Seoul (central party) tomorrow, Jeju the day after, Busan on the 6th, Gwangju on the 8th, and Daejeon on the 10th. The United Future Party signed a policy and election alliance agreement with the Future Korea Party at the National Assembly today and will conduct joint campaigns. The agreement includes sharing mutual election pledges and allowing Future Korea Party lawmakers and proportional representation candidates to accompany United Future Party constituency candidates during on-site campaigns.

The Central Election Management Committee has decided to carefully examine possible violations of election laws related to this. For example, it is not illegal for Democratic Party and Citizens Party candidates to ride in the same vehicle during campaigns, but it is illegal to solicit support for each other. However, it is permitted for individuals who are not running to support candidates from other parties. This applies to Representative Lee for the Democratic Party and Chairman Kim for the United Future Party.

Each party is also focusing on devising non-face-to-face campaign methods. One candidate said, "Campaigning where you can only greet from a distance without conversation is inevitable," adding, "It is practically a pantomime campaign." Since most candidates wear masks, masks with candidates’ names have become a 'hot item' in this election. One candidate explained, "Because we campaign wearing masks, many people ask if it is really me," and added, "Besides masks with my name, I also prepared masks labeled 'me'."

While lively music and campaign workers shouting candidates’ names and performing choreography were typical campaign scenes, this election period is expected to feature a 'quiet' image with one or two candidates giving speeches from campaign vehicles. Competition for banner space promoting each party’s pledges and candidates is also expected to intensify. Online postings on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms by each candidate are also actively taking place.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.