The pro-government Uri Party of South Korea now is facing strong challenge of the biggest opposition Grand National Party (GNP) ahead of the parliamentary election to be held on Thursday.

The party, which only holds 47 seats in the 16th National Assembly, originally set a goal to secure 150 seats, or nearly half of the total 299 members in the 17th National Assembly.

But, less than two weeks before the election, it lowered the target to 110 seats, because of lapsus of its leader.

Its Chairman Chung Dong-young's remarks that "senior voters could stay home and rest in the election day because the younger generation will decide the nation's future" shadowed the Uri Party's hope on the election.

Despite Chung made apology and knelt down to the olds, his party's popularity has been slid. Three day ahead of the election,Chung resigned as party's campaign leader.

In contrast, the biggest opposition Grand National Party (GNP)'s supporting rate revived from valley, closing the gap with the pro-government party.

Among the total of 1,175 registered candidates vying for direct-elected 243 seats of the new parliament, 243 are from the Uri Party. Fifty-one members of the Uri Party attended race for the rest 56 proportional seats.

The only five-month old Uri Party has very high rallying point among young people, who always prefer reform in political and economy fields.

One of the Uri Party's platforms is to build a clean nation free from corruption by a series of strict measures.

In the economy field, the party underscores establishing a market economy that realizes balanced growth and distribution.

The party also endorses the capital relocation plan that was first put forward by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun.

It also fully supports Roh's "Peace and Prosperity Policy" toward the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), and pursues peaceful solving of the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

The Uri Party, formed by lawmakers, quit from the former rulingMillennium Democratic Party (MDP) and the GNP in November 2003. Those younger lawmakers are loyal to President Roh Moo-hyun.

Before the official launch of the Uri Party, Roh left the MDP, which he represented in the 2002 presidential election, in last October. Roh's action led to the MDP's opposition to the government.

Roh Moo-hyun currently is suspended from presidential rights after the opposition-controlled 16th National Assembly passed the impeachment bill, accusing him of violating the election law and being incompetent in economic affairs.

Roh once publicly expressed his favor of the Uri Party and planned to join the party at an appropriate time.

One of the reasons the two opposition parties, the GNP and the MDP, pushed the impeachment bill is Roh's open remarks favoring the Uri Party, which they deemed violated the election law. They maintained that as a government civil servant, Roh should keep neutral in the parliamentary election.

And local people saw, through TV programs, the Uri Party lawmakers using all their physical efforts trying to prevent the parliament from approving the bill one month ago.

Just after March 12, the supporting rate of the Uri Party rocketed from 20 percent to some 50 percent due to people's anger of the unreasonable ever-first impeachment.

With the passage of time, although the "impeachment effect" will still exert influence on the election, the results cannot be easily forecast.

Source: Xinhua