Voters in the central South Korean city of Cheongju have backed the winning presidential candidate in the last seven elections. This time around, there is no clear candidate building a wave of support just days before the poll.
“It’s a curse,” Kim Yoon-sun, a resident in her 60s, said of the city’s notoriety as the king of swing districts. “Election? Oh dear. Don’t even ask, please,” she said, calling it the most disappointing presidential race she has seen.
The issues of concern for voters are clear in the March 9 presidential race. Housing prices have shot up; income disparity and a gender-based wage gap that was already among the highest in the developed world have grown worse during the pandemic. Inflation unexpectedly accelerated in February and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine suggests there will be little respite for rising prices.
The problem is that in the election barometer district of Cheongju, neither of the two main candidates — progressive Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party and Yoon Suk-yeol of the main conservative People Power Party — has convinced many voters that they can provide a steady hand to steer East Asia’s third-largest economy.
There has been a steady drumbeat of scandals in local media about the candidates and the negative tenor of the political debate has turned off a lot of voters.
“We have to pick the right person this time. I often get mocked by my peers in Seoul. They say Korea would’ve have been far better off without Cheongju, because we’ve always voted for the wrong person, putting this country into chaos,” resident Kim said.
Yoon was barely ahead of Lee when the final polls allowed by law came out on Thursday, but received a boost since then when a minor conservative candidate dropped out and threw support his way. South Korea’s presidents serve a single five-year term and the new leader will take office in May.
A former top prosecutor and political newcomer, Yoon has tried to win over voters with pledges to rein in real estate prices, take a tough line with North Korea and implement a 100-day emergency rescue plan for a COVID-hit economy that would provide a quick and hefty financial injection. He has also had a gaffe-strewn campaign and struggled to quiet ethical controversies including whether his wife exaggerated her credentials to get a job.
Lee, a former factory worker who later became a civil rights lawyer and governor of the country’s most-populous province, has put forward a populist agenda. He has pushed to make the country Asia’s first to introduce universal basic income.
His campaign, however, has been clouded by scandals in his personal life and a probe into land speculation in Seongnam, a city where Lee served as mayor. The candidate has denied any wrongdoing.
For many in Cheongju, the candidates aren’t offering solutions that can help ordinary Koreans who are worried if they can make ends meet and afford a home for their family.
“I want to hear more about job policies, but I’m not hearing anything,” said Kim Dong-kuk, a second-year university student majoring in education at Chungbuk National University in the city. “All I hear is candidates criticizing and cursing one another. It makes me somewhat tired, and a bit depressed.”
President Moon Jae-in pledged to make housing more affordable when he was elected in 2017, but apartment prices surged after he took office. Those in Seoul have doubled during his tenure, while salaries for the country’s workers have risen less than 20%.
The situation is similar in Cheongju, said Han Kye-gwang, a real estate agency owner. Data on the local market shows the average price of new apartments of around 100 square meters (1,075 square feet) in some areas of the city has doubled since 2018 to about $630,000 as of the end of last year.
“I don’t know about other policies, but when it comes to real estate policy, there’s definitely room to improve,” Han said, suggesting the way people feel about Moon’s housing policy would strongly influence how Cheongju residents make their decision.
A late February survey from Korea Information Research showed that 54% of respondents want to see a change of presidential party, which bodes well for the opposition’s Yoon and hangs over the ruling party’s Lee. The number was slightly higher in the province where Cheongju is located.
“We are the half-half’s, never favored any of the parties in history,” said Lee Sang-hyun, a taxi driver in his 60s.
If Yoon prevails, he’ll face a parliament where Moon’s party has a supermajority, virtually ensuring gridlock on many domestic issues. North Korea, which modernized its arsenal of weapons that can strike South Korea while Moon is in office, has let its neighbor know it will be busy with provocations. It fired off a record monthly barrage of missiles in January and has ridiculed Moon for trying to play the role of an intermediary between it and the U.S.
In Cheongju, the regional tensions stoked by North Korea and China aren’t a top priority for voters. Campaign trucks in the city’s center that blasted appeals trying to win over voters were largely ignored by people walking by.
“No need to hear any of their speeches,” said Kang Hyun-jin, in her 30s, at the city’s biggest Yukgeori local market, who walked passed the trucks without giving them a glance.
“I don’t support any of them,” she said. “I guess it all comes down to the issue of whether people think the current administration did well or not.”
