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.
A senior UN official has said he is “alarmed” that a peaceful Australian climate protester has been jailed for 15 months — and refused bail before her appeal — amid global outrage at her “disproportionate” punishment. On Friday, Deanna “Violet” Coco was sentenced to 15 months in prison for blocking a single lane of traffic on the Sydney Harbour Bridge in April in a protest staged to draw attention to the global climate emergency. “I am alarmed at a NSW court’s prison term against climate protestor Deanna Coco and refusal to grant bail until a March 2023 appeal hearing, ” UN Special
SECOND ATTEMPT: An overhaul of the criminal code is expected this month, after a similar move was in 2019 stymied by large-scale protests in the Muslim-majority country The Indonesian parliament is this month expected to pass a new criminal code that would penalize sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have said. The legislative overhaul would also ban insulting the Indonesian president or state institutions, and expressing any views counter to the country’s state ideology. Cohabitation before marriage is also banned. Decades in the making, the new criminal code is expected to be passed on Dec. 15, Indonesian Deputy Minister of Justice Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej said. “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian values,” he told Reuters
CARROT-AND-STICK: Authorities tightened control over virtual private networks, which protesters used to access banned non-Chinese news and social media apps Chinese authorities have initiated the highest “emergency response” level of censorship, according to leaked directives, including a crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs) and other methods of bypassing online censorship after unprecedented protests demonstrated widespread public frustration with the “zero COVID” policy. The crackdown, including the tracking and questioning of protesters, comes alongside the easing of pandemic restrictions in an apparent carrot-and-stick approach to an outpouring of public grievances. During an extraordinary week in China, protests against “zero COVID” restrictions included criticism of the authoritarian rule of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — which was further highlighted by the death of
EASING RESTRICTIONS: China has not approved any foreign COVID-19 vaccines and is opting for those produced domestically, the US Director of National Intelligence said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is unwilling to accept Western vaccines despite the challenges China is facing with COVID-19, and recent protests could affect his personal standing in the Chinese Communist Party, US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said on Saturday. Although China’s daily COVID-19 cases are near all-time highs, some cities are taking steps to loosen testing and quarantine rules after Xi’s “zero COVID” policy triggered a sharp economic slowdown and public unrest. Despite the social and economic impact of the virus, Xi “is unwilling to take a better vaccine from the West, and is instead relying on a vaccine
RSS