South Koreans asked to avenge impeachment in parliamentary vote

SEOUL: South Koreans vote today to elect a new parliament, juggling calls to avenge the impeachment of President Roh Moo-Hyun, reverse the decision to send troops to Iraq and redefine ties with North Korea. Last month’s impeachment remains the single key issue in a tight race between conservatives and pro-Roh progressives for control of the National Assembly for the next four years.

“Impeachment is still the key factor,” said Lee Chung-Hee, politics professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. “The people can’t erase impeachment when considering who they are going to vote for.” Pollsters say that the Uri Party should emerge as the largest single block but the conservative Grand National Party (GNP), written off a week ago, is snapping at its heels. Reformer Roh, 57, elected to the presidency on a wave of support from younger voters, was impeached on March 12 in a National Assembly vote denounced as a coup by his backers. Roh is not up for election and his fate is now in the hands of the constitutional court, which has six months to rule on whether to uphold the vote or restore his executive powers. However, he has said he will resign if the Uri Party fares poorly in the election.

Uri Party leader Chung Dong-Young asked voters to punish the GNP, which dominated the outgoing chamber for the impeachment vote that triggered political uncertainty and massive street protests.

More than 70 percent of Koreans opposed the vote and if parliamentary elections had taken place then, the upstart party formed only six months ago would have won an overall majority in the new 299-member parliament, according to polls. Support for the GNP, already declining because of a massive corruption scandal, bombed, according to its new leader, South Korea’s former first lady Park Geun-Hye, drafted in to give the party’s soiled image a makeover after the impeachment debacle.

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