The South Presidential election is quickly approaching, and we are seeing fierce competition between  Lee Jae-Myung and Yoon Seok-youl, leading the final election to be unpredictable. There are four nominees in this 2022 Korean presidential election: Lee Jae-Myung, Yoon Seok-youl, Sim Sang-jung, and Ahn Cheol Soo.

 

Lee Jae-Myung represents the democratic party; YoonSeok-youl represents People Power; Sim Sang-jung represents Justice, and Ahn Cheol-Soo represents People. Currently, Lee and Yoon are racing top lines as they have the most support, and in contrast, Sim and Ahn do not have high support from citizens. Lee and Yoon have presented two different proposals for their governance. 

 

Lee proposed five points as a promise for becoming the president of the Republic of Korea: 1.  Adults aged  19~29 will receive 2,000,000 won every year, and all citizens will receive 1,000,000won (regional currency). 

2.  1.5 million and 2.5 million houses will be supplied. 

3. Citizens can borrow up to 10,000,000 won with a low-interest rate. 

4. All citizens will participate in the “basic savings'' policy. 

5.  Parents' right to have maternity leave and parental leave will be protected.  

Yoon proposed six points as his promise when he becomes elected as the president: 

1. He stated that 2.5 million houses will be provided for young adults and newly married couples: the location of the houses will be near the subway station for convenience. 

2.  The tax on citizens holding one house and the transfer tax rate will be lowered. 

3.  One trillion won will be spent on citizens due to the severe Covid-19 situation. 

4.  In order to support private enterprise, 80 regulations will be eased. 

5.  University entrance exams for students will be simplified, and regular applications will be expanded. 

6.  Young adults who are classified to be vulnerable will receive 500,000 won every month. 

Two leading candidates have very different arguments on how the fiscal policy should be set, especially during the Covid-19 crisis. Lee pushes on his main proposal as providing citizens with regional currency to lead people to spend money on the economy and drive the economy to thrive again. On the other hand, Yoon pushes on his idea of providing 25 trillion won to the whole population. 

Due to severe competition, it was difficult to predict who would win the presidential election in March. Based on the public opinion poll about which nominee the citizens are currently supporting on Jan 17th, 2022, Lee had 32.9%, and Yoon had 31.6%: Lee had a 1.3% higher percentage than Yoon. The age group of 18~29 and over 60 supported Yoon, and the age group of 30~50 supported Lee. Also, Seoul, Daegu, Busan, Kangwon and four other regions supported Yoon while Incheon, Daejeon, Kwangjoo, and four other regions supported Lee more. As the percentages are very close, no one can predict who will win the election. 

However, there was one incident that caused a gap between Lee and Yoon. It was a YouTube program called 3ProTV, and this program interviewed both Lee and Yoon. The 3ProTV channel on YouTube is very popular as it deals with and analyzes economic situations in Korea very well. Hence, the public was widely attracted when they heard the news that 3Pro was interviewing Lee and Yoon. Unfortunately, through these interviews, citizens could confirm that Yoon is unprepared and unskillful to become the president; this show revealed how many limitations Yoon had and could imply to the audience that he will be unskillful with dealing with future conflicts. 

On the other hand, Lee swiftly proposed his main arguments and could gain the audience's hearts. Surprisingly, there was a big change in the support votes after this program. A Gallup survey revealed that Lee got 37.6% and Yoon got 29.2%, making a significant change between these two. Thus, we could see how there has been a change in the public’s support vote. Nevertheless, no one will be able to predict who will be elected as Korea’s next president. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoohyun Jeon

Grade 11

Idyllwild Arts Academy 

 
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