LOCAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN BEGINS

[Anchor Lead]

The official campaign period for next month’s local government elections kicked off today. Candidates will strive to win voters during the 13-day campaigning. To be held in 22 days after President Yoon Suk-yeol took office, the elections will determine the directions of the political situation in the early days of his administration.

[Pkg]

The official campaigning period for the June first local government elections has begun. For 13 days, starting Thursday, some 7,600 candidates from the ruling and opposition parties will campaign to win support in 2,300 constituencies. On Day 1 of official campaigning, leaders of the rival parties are visiting Incheon to drum up support for their candidates running for mayor of the city, which is considered one of the main battlefields in the capital area. On Wednesday, the eve of official campaigning, all heavyweight members of both the ruling and opposition parties gathered in Gwangju to attend a ceremony marking the 42nd anniversary of the May 18 pro-democracy movement. Ruling People Power Party chief Lee Jun-seok said he has visited Jeolla provinces more than 20 times in less than a year since becoming the party chair. He stressed the Democratic Party’s 30-year political monopoly over the Jeolla province has blocked its economic development.

[Soundbite] Lee Jun-seok(Chair, People Power Party) : "The DP had promised to relocate the military airport in Gwangju. But it failed to keep the promise, despite its monopolistic political status here."

As the head of the ruling bloc, Lee also promised to provide huge financial support to the region. Meanwhile, the DP insisted President Yoon Suk-yeol abandoned political cooperation with the opposition, although he said that integration is the spirit of the May 18 pro-democracy movement.

[Soundbite] Park Hong-keun(Floor Leader, Democratic Party) : "With his closest aide Han Dong-hoon at the front, the president has completed an inner circle, revealing explicit intentions to create a prosecutor-governed nation."

The main opposition party also highlighted that just three of 109 cabinet members and presidential aides are from Gwangju and Jeollanam-do Province. It then reiterated the need for inserting the spirit of the Gwangju pro-democracy movement in the Constitution. Amid this situation, the rival parties are paying keen attention to how Friday's parliamentary voting on the confirmation of Prime Minister nominee Han Duck-soo would affect voters.