KOREA: Six candidates to hold televised debate tonight

Campaign watchers and media analysts say, however, that the debate will bear little impact on undecided voters

The Korea Times
Wednesday, December 5, 2007

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Six presidential candidates will hold the first round of a television debate series today about political affairs, diplomacy, reunification and security, the National Election Commission (NEC) said. The two-hour debate will be aired by national television networks.

The six are Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP); Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party (GNP); Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP); Rhee In-je of the Democratic Party (DP); Moon Kook-hyun of the Creative Korea Party (CKP); and independent Lee Hoi-chang. Each candidate will be given 20 minutes to present their policies and discuss the issues.

Two more rounds of TV debate are scheduled to take place on Dec. 11 in the areas of social affairs, education, culture and gender issues, and on Dec. 16 in the fields of economy, labor, social welfare, and science and technology, according to the NEC.

Campaign watchers said the impact of televised debates on the presidential race has gradually decreased over the past decade.

According to the Korean Association for Broadcasting and Telecommunication Studies (KABT), the number of voters who answered they were affected by the debate when they chose their preferred candidate accounted for 51.6 percent of the total eligible voters in the 1997 presidential election.

The comparable figure stood at 22.8 percent in the 2002 election in a survey conducted by the association.

A KABT study indicated that the dwindling effect of televised debates on voters' decision making is also found in television ratings on the debate.

The 1997 election marked 55.7 percent television ratings for joint debates of presidential candidates, while the figure decreased to 33.8 percent in the 2002 election.

Media experts predicted the limited role of the media debate on the race will continue in the 2007 election.

A total of 11 candidates are vying in the Dec. 19 presidential race after People First Party (PFP)'s Sim Dae-pyong dropped out of the race to support independent Lee Hoi-chang.

NEC said three criteria were applied in the selection process for the TV debates.

The rules stipulate: the candidate represents a political party holding five National Assembly seats or more; the party won 30 percent or more nationwide support from voters in the previous election; the candidate won five percent of an average approval rating or more in opinion polls conducted in November.

Based on these rules, the NEC selected the six candidates who met any of these criteria.

Date Posted: 12/5/2007