14 hopefuls set sights on S. Korea presidency

SEOUL－Campaigning for South Korea's presidential election officially kicked off on Tuesday for a 22-day run ahead of the election to be held on March 9.

A total of 14 candidates are competing for the presidency of a single five-year term, according to the National Election Commission.

During the campaign period, candidates are allowed to make speeches in open spaces with loudspeakers, distribute leaflets about campaign pledges, do advertising campaigns on television and radio, and send text messages and emails to voters.

This will be the first presidential election to be held after the legal voting age was changed from 19 to 18 in 2020.

The March 9 vote comes as South Korea faces a range of critical issues such as an economy hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

South Korea's daily count of new cases topped 90,000 for the first time on Tuesday, driven to a record by the fast-spreading Omicron variant that has seen daily tallies nearly double in just a week.

COVID-19 patients and those under quarantine will be allowed to vote on election day for 1.5 hours from 6:00 pm local time after the end of regular polling.

Opinion poll results will be banned for release from March 3, six days before the election, to prevent the results from affecting the choices of voters.

According to the latest survey by Realmeter, support for Lee Jaemyung from the governing Democratic Party rose 1 percentage point over the week to 39.1 percent last week.

Internal divisions

Lee traveled to the southeastern port city of Busan, where he promised to build up South Korea's economy and address internal divisions.

"I'd become an 'economic' president who makes the Republic of Korea among the G5 or the top five powerful nations," Lee told his supporters, adding that he would be "a president who pulls together public opinions as one".

Support for the main conservative opposition People Power Party's Yoon Suk-yeol slipped 1.8 percentage points to 41.6 percent last week.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the centrist People's Party won 7.7 percent of support, followed by Sim Sang-jeung of the progressive Justice Party with 2.8 percent.

The results were based on a poll of 3,040 voters conducted from Feb 6 to 11. The margin of error was plus and minus 1.8 percentage points with a 95 percent confidence level.

The winner will be inaugurated as South Korea's next president on May 10 for a single five-year term. Current President Moon Jae-in is barred by law from seeking reelection.

Xinhua - Agencies