Prime Minister Goh Kun, South Korea's acting president during a presidential impeachment trial, vowed yesterday to crack down on illegal campaigning and protests in the run up to this month's parliamentary election.
The campaign period for the April 15 National Assembly election begins today amid court deliberations over last month's impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun and following weeks of big street protests over the issue.
"I have no party affiliation and will manage the election fairly and end the unfair and illegal cycle in our history with this vote," Goh said in a statement. Past parliamentary votes have been marred by vote buying.
"The government will take stern action against illegal activities and any violations," said the veteran bureaucrat, who took over as interim president when Roh's powers were suspended after his impeachment on March 12.
Political analysts said a single-issue race would mark a setback in South Korea's vibrant but still young democracy.
"The current situation with the impeachment of President Roh dominating all other issues is not sound," said Hong Kyu-dok, politics professor at Sookmyung Women's University in Seoul. "There are many other important agenda items such as non-performing loans or unemployment, but there has not been enough discussion about these problems," he said.
The anger over Roh's impeachment that has drawn thousands of people to peaceful protests looks set to boost voter turnout to 70 percent, 10 percent higher than in 2000, absentee ballot registration data show, said a senior government official.
Goh, nicknamed "Mr Stability," thanked the people for maintaining calm during the impeachment saga. But he vowed to uphold a ban on street protests over Roh's impeachment, effective from April 2, which is also the first day of campaigning.
He threatened "stern measures" if public officials are found supporting a party or candidate in violation of laws prohibiting partisan speech by civil servants. It was those rules which Roh was found to have broken and which sparked his impeachment.
Roh was impeached by the opposition-controlled assembly for remarks he made in support of the pro-government Uri Party.
But popular outrage against the impeachment has seen the Uri Party's support ratings surge, while backing for Roh's foes, the Grand National Party (GNP) and the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), has tumbled in public opinion polls.
In the most comprehensive media poll, a JoongAng Ilbo newspaper survey of 74,200 voters gave the populist, center-left Uri Party a solid lead in both electoral districts and in the proportional representation vote.
Voters on April 15 will cast two votes, one for individual candidates in 243 first-past-the-post constituencies and one for the 56 seats decided by a proportional representation vote on party lines.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
Cambodia’s government on Wednesday said that it had arrested and extradited to China a tycoon who has been accused of running a huge online scam operation. The Cambodian Ministry of the Interior said that Prince Holding Group chairman Chen Zhi (陳志) and two other Chinese citizens were arrested and extradited on Tuesday at the request of Chinese authorities. Chen formerly had dual nationality, but his Cambodian citizenship was revoked last month, the ministry said. US prosecutors in October last year brought conspiracy charges against Chen, alleging that he had been the mastermind behind a multinational cyberfraud network, used his other businesses to launder
Uncontrolled fires burned through bushland in the Australian state of Victoria yesterday, forcing communities to evacuate and authorities to warn of a “catastrophic” fire danger rating for today. Amid temperatures that exceeded 40°C in parts of the state, two large bushfires were raging near the towns of Longwood and Walwa. The fires had destroyed at least two structures and were expected to continue to spread today as heat and wind pick up, authorities said. The Longwood fire had grown to more than 25,000 hectares in size, while the Walwa fire was 10,000 hectares and has created its own weather system, with a pyrocumulonimbus
RSS