Seoul Mayoral Candidate Kang in Slump

“Why on earth the approval rating of Kang Keum-sil doesn’t go up?” These days, people in and out of Uri Party have voiced concerns about that. They are nervous because a voting day for the regional election comes nearer, but the popularity of Uri Party’s leading player Kang Keum-sil, a Seoul mayoral candidate, doesn’t improve.

The experts watch carefully so-called a `theory of weak backyard.’ Prof. Kim Hyeong-jun of Kookmin University said, “According to the opinion polls, voters of Honam have changed their minds to floaters and those of South and North Chungcheong provinces support candidate Oh Se-hun at the rate of 5:1. Even among So-called “386 generation,” the approval rating of Oh is about two times higher than that of Kang. Under a circumstance that a significant number of eligible voters of Honam region where traditionally Uri Party has wielded great influence are floating voters and Chungcheong voters who have made a strategic choice and 386 generation lean to Oh of GNP, it is hard to expect Kang to fight well.

Then why Kang has hit such unfavorable conditions? There are a number of reasons, but experts point voters’ strong sense of disappointment over President Roh Moo-hyun who posed as a reform power and inefficiency of Uri Party and Kang’s strategic failure as key reasons. Representative of a consulting company Park Seong-min said, “After all, the result of elections, especially regional elections, is decided by approval ratings of parties. As President Roh and the ruling Uri Party have been branded as inefficient reform power, the party’s popularity is about half of GNP. It is the cause of Kang’s slump.” It means that no matter how Kang is popular and efficient, she can’t surpass the limit of her party’s approval rating.

A political analyst pointed, “Kang has only balanced issues which all of the candidates sympathize but show a little difference in the details. She failed to make position issues like Mayor Lee Myung-bak’s public pledge to develop Cheonggyecheon.” He meant that while Kang didn’t collect Uri Party’s traditional supporters and make powerful and unique issues to make them show up at elections, she has worsened an already unfavorable situation.