The 20th presidential election is just a day away, but the spouses of the influential ruling and opposition presidential candidates have yet to show up. It seems that the ruling and opposition parties calculated that it would be advantageous for the wives of the candidates who had been caught up in various controversies not to appear as the ‘close battle’ situation continued.
Kim Hye-kyung, wife of Democratic Party presidential candidate Lee Jae-myung, disappeared completely after a press conference on the 9th of last month to apologize to the public regarding the ‘suspecting excessive protocol’.
Kim, who had been carrying out a ‘bright walk’ by digesting local schedules alone, started to report on the suspicion of excessive protocol on the 2nd of last month, and then temporarily suspended the public schedule as additional allegations such as ‘use of corporate cards’ were raised. After that, Kim did not go out of the public schedule after an apology press conference on the 9th of the same month.
Inside the Democratic Party, they weighed the timing and availability of Kim’s appearance after the controversy, but the possibility that Kim would not appear in front of voters increased.
An official from the Democratic Party’s Election Countermeasures Committee said in a telephone conversation with News 1 on the 8th, “Is there any need to escalate the controversy by appearing (Kim)?
In particular, Kim did not accompany Lee to the early voting site on the 4th. It is not known whether he voted in advance or not.
Kim Gun-hee, the spouse of Yoon Seok-yeol, the presidential candidate for People’s Strength, also did not appear after being caught up in allegations of Deutsche Motors stock price manipulation and false history controversy. On December 26, last year, Kim appeared publicly only once at a press conference to apologize to the public for false information.
However, since then, Kim’s private activities have been caught in the media several times. On the 4th, Kim visited the Seocho 1-dong Community Service Center near his home and voted in advance, which was captured by the media. It was an undisclosed schedule that was not initially announced to the media. After the early voting, Kim left the seat, sparingly saying to reporters who asked about his feelings, “You have a lot of trouble.”
On the 17th, two days after the official election campaign started (February 15), it was belatedly known that he had visited Bongeunsa Temple in Gangnam, Seoul.
The actions of these candidate spouses were based on the intention of each party’s camp to minimize the risk in the ‘close battle’ situation. In a situation where Candidate Lee and Candidate Yoon are engaged in a close battle with an ultra-thin gap, it seems that there was a judgment that the controversy could grow if the spouses who were suspected of entering the field.
A political official said, “If both of them have not been publicly active until now, it is correct to assume that there will be no public activity until the voting day.” .
(Seoul = News 1)
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