[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] The Future Korea Party, a satellite party for proportional representation under the United Future Party, launched its election campaign committee on the 31st and began full-scale election campaigning.
The overall election committee chairman is Representative Won Yoo-chul, who is also the party leader. The general election headquarters chiefs are Representatives Yeom Dong-yeol and Park Maeng-woo, and the standing advisors are Representatives Kim Jeong-hoon, Han Seon-gyo, and Yeo Sang-gyu. Representative Kim Ki-sun was appointed as the senior co-chairman of the election committee, and 11 incumbent lawmakers including Representative Jeong Un-cheon, along with Yoon Joo-kyung, former director of the Independence Hall and the number one proportional representation candidate, will serve as co-chairpersons of the election committee.
The Future Korea Party plans to hold a signing ceremony for an election and policy alliance agreement with the United Future Party on the 1st and conduct election campaigns both separately and jointly.
Regarding this, spokesperson Jo Su-jin explained, "According to Article 88 of the Public Official Election Act, as long as one talks only about the party they belong to and themselves, it does not violate election laws." She added, "There were election alliances in 2010 and 2012. This is directly applied from the alliance between the opposition Democratic Party and the Unified Progressive Party led by Lee Jeong-hee during their opposition period."
Spokesperson Jo further stated, "At that time, Democratic Party leader Moon Jae-in campaigned and gave speeches alongside independent candidate Song Cheol-ho. If you think that Representative Won Yoo-chul, who has declared he will not run, or the United Future Party’s overall election committee chairman Kim Jong-in are engaging in the same activities as Leader Moon did in the past, you will understand quickly."
Since most of the Future Korea Party leadership, including Leader Won, have declared they will not run, they can accompany and support United Future Party candidates during campaigns. Even if United Future Party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn and Future Korea Party co-chairperson Yoon Joo-kyung campaign together, as long as they do not make statements supporting Hwang or the United Future Party, there should be no problem. Spokesperson Jo added, "After the agreement tomorrow, we will seriously discuss how to campaign together or separately."
The United Future Party and the Future Korea Party share the same party color, pink. The United Future Party is assigned number 2, and the Future Korea Party’s candidates and party will be placed in the second box on the ballot paper. Leader Won said, "Please select the second box and be sure to board (vote for us)."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
