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On the first day of the two-day registration for the general elections Tuesday, 833 candidates registered their candidacy in 245 constituencies nationwide. That was a competition ratio of 3.4:1. The National Election Commission expects more than 1,200 candidates to register by Wednesday, raising the ratio above the 4.8:1 seen in the last election five years ago.
Candidates¡¯ tax payment records compiled by the NEC show that 10.7 percent or 89 of the candidates paid no income tax over the last five years. One-hundred and forty candidates or 16.8 percent paid less than W100,000 (US$1=W977) in income tax. As of 2006, the average income per capita tax in Korea was W3.25 million.
Among the registered candidates, 13.7 percent or 114 have criminal records. Six violated the election law and others were charged with violent acts, document forgery and violating the national security law. Some 39 candidates with the United Democratic Party have criminal records, 11 with the Grand National Party, three with the Liberty Forward Party, 25 with the Democratic Labor Party, five with a coalition of followers of ex-GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye and 15 independents
Among male candidates, 16.2 percent or 120 did not serve in the military. Reasons include imprisonment as political offenders.
The average assets of candidates are W5.74 billion. The wealthiest candidate is GNP candidate Chung Mong-joon wit W3.60 trillion. Except him, the average drops to W1.42 billion.
The NEC announced the campaign pledges of each party on Tuesday. All promised to create more jobs and stabilize consumer prices. As one of 10 key campaign pledges, the UDP presented the establishment of five railways across the country. The GNP promised to promote the prosperity of the capital area and provinces. The LFP vowed to block the establishment of a cross-country canal initiated by President Lee Myung-bak. The GNP did not include the canal project in its campaign pledge for the general elections. It was one of its major promises in the presidential election last December.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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