From: jhshin@cc.gatech.edu ()
Subject: article about pres. election
Reply-To: jhshin@cc.gatech.edu ()
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 1992 14:36:16 GMT


*the following is copied from korean herald without permission. 8-)*
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NO :1/25       Saturday, December 19, 1992      87 Lines

HEADLINE : Two Kims in Close Race at the Start; Margin of Victory Predicted at
          Less Than Half Million Votes

 Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung were staging a neck-and-neck
race in Seoul and the adjacent Kyonggi areas in an election to
pick the first president without a military background in 32
years, according to early returns.

 Billionaire Chung Ju-yung was closely trailing the two Kims.

 As expected, Kim Young-sam of the majority Democratic Liberal
Party was far ahead of the other contenders in his home turf of
Pusan and the surrounding South Kyongsang Province.

 Kim Dae-jung of the Democratic Party dominated his stronghold
of Kwangju and the adjacent Cholla areas.

 Surprisingly, Park Chan-jong of a small party was making an
impressive showing.

 The winner is expected to be decided by a margin of less than
half a million votes.

 Voting began at 7 a.m. at 15,346 polling stations nationwide
following a 28-day official campaign tainted by mudslinging and
charges of vote-buying. No major accidents were reported.

 More than 29 million people were eligible to vote.

 The government designated the election day as a national
holiday.

 Ballot counting started around 8 p.m. at 308 stations as soon
as ballot boxes, except those from remote islands, were
gathered.

 The outcome is expected to be known early this morning, CEMC
officials said.

 Of 748,843 absentee voters, 52,807 had posted their votes and
666,016 others voted at absentee polling stations between Dec. 5
and Dec. 14, the CEMC said.

 The new president's five-year term will begin in February. He
will be the nation's first president without any links to the
military establishment since the late former President Park
Chung Hee rose to power in a coup in 1961.


 Lee Jong-chan, a maverick lawmaker who bolted the majority
party after boycotting the party's presidential nomination
convention in May, pulled out of the race early this week,
declaring support for billionaire candidate Chung Ju-yung.

 A scandal which erupted in Pusan just three days before the
voting may have inflicted damage on majority party candidate Kim
Young-sam. A group of heads of government agencies in the
southern port city met over breakfast last week to take up steps
to help Kim. Pusan, the nation's second largest city, is Kim's
home base.

 The incident triggered controversy over the government's
political neutrality. President Roh Tae-woo severed ties with
the majority party in October to stay politically neutral.

 Campaigning for the presidential election centered on the
nation's sagging economy which saw a discouraging 3.1 percent
growth in the third quarter of this year, the lowest quarterly
growth in 11 years.

 In the 1987 campaign, the opposition parties' main campaign
theme was an ``end to military dictatorial rule.'' But this
time, there were few discussions on democracy.

 Five years ago, Kim Young-sam and Kim Dae-jung split the
opposition vote, helping President Roh to ``easily'' win the
1987 race. President Roh and Kim Young-sam later merged their
parties in early 1990.

 The official campaign was marred by smear tactics and charges
of election rigging and vote-buying.

 The majority party and billionaire candidate Chung Ju-yung's
UPP accused the other of vote-buying efforts. The DLP charged
that Chung used his wealth to buy power.

 The minority parties attacked the majority party with regard to
alleged election rigging, focusing on the Pusan incident.


Organization: Masters student, Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA