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The fact that the Millennium Democratic Party and National Alliance 21 are renegotiating on the selection process of a single presidential candidate immediately after their announced agreement, shows how more complicated this is than they initially thought. A side effect of this will be to make people even more skeptical on Korea's political process, because the raison d' etre for a political party, its ideology and visions of the selected candidate will be decided by an unstable public opinion poll.
It may be inevitable to question the purpose of political parties in Korea; they are supposed to send their candidates forward for public service, and their highest target is the presidency. However, the agreement by Roh Mu-hyun and Chung Mong-joon to have a single candidate has subsumed the role of the party to public opinion. A poll that is supposed to be a reference point for political parties is now taking over their function.
This process raises concern as this selection process for their presidential candidate is artificial, incomplete and made out of convenience, which will not be universally accepted by the people. No public opinion survey is 100 percent correct and in addition different forms of questions concerning the candidates in polls so far have been producing different results; sometimes Roh is ahead, sometimes Chung, with regard to actual preference, and ability to compete against the Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Hoi-chang.
There is also some question as to the MDP dumping the results of a nationwide primary, where people were asked to select a candidate and chose Roh. Also should public broadcasting be used for private purposes? This is why the Central Election Management Committee limited their exposure. It is to be hoped that public broadcasters are not used for political purposes.
November 19, 2002
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