16 days before the 20th presidential election, candidates from the ruling and opposition parties will face off in the first TV debate presided over by the National Election Commission on the 21st.
Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung, People’s Power Yoon Seok-yeol, Justice Party Shim Sang-jeong, and People’s Party candidate Ahn Cheol-soo attend the debate held at MBC in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul at 8 pm on the same day. Each candidate works hard to prepare for the debate without a public schedule on that day.
This is the third debate in which the four candidates face off, and the first courtroom TV debate after the official election campaign began. The discussion will be held for two hours with themes of overall economic policy, such as ‘economic policy in the era of Corona’ and ‘the direction of the next government’s economic policy’.
Candidate Lee is expected to emphasize the image of a ‘competent economic president’ by highlighting his administrative experience as Seongnam Mayor and Gyeonggi Governor. It is expected that the issue of compensation for losses of small businesses, such as the formation of an additional supplementary budget, will also be discussed intensively.
Candidate Yoon is expected to focus on presenting policy alternatives while criticizing the Moon Jae-in administration’s real estate and income-led growth policies. Candidate Yoon also worked hard to prepare for the TV debate without a separate campaign the day before.
Candidate Shim is expected to differentiate itself on the agenda of the progressive camp, emphasizing unfair economic structural reforms and improving corporate governance.
Candidate Ahn, who declared the failure of unification of the opposition parties the day before, will criticize the economic policies of Lee Jae-myung and Yoon Seok-yeol as a promise of populism and emphasize the improvement of the economic constitution.
The legal debate hosted by the National Election Commission will be held two more times under the themes of politics on the 25th and society on March 2.
Candidates who do not meet the criteria for invitation to a legal debate by the National Election Commission will have a separate discussion for two hours from 11 pm on the 22nd.
Kim Hye-rin, reporter for Donga.com sinnala8@donga.com
