SEOUL– The rival presidential candidates sought Thursday to woo voters with promises of real estate policy reforms as they ramped up their campaigning for the March 9 presidential election.
Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) targeted the country’s most populated area on the third day of the official campaign period, pledging to stabilize soaring home prices.
Lee emphasized that his policies will be different from the current government of President Moon Jae-in and promised that he will ease regulations for apartment redevelopment and reconstruction to supply new homes.
“People are angry because home prices suddenly went up and raised taxes, and so do I” he said during a campaign rally in Nowon district, northern Seoul. “We need to gradually adjust property and real estate taxes that went up excessively.”
He then visited Gwanghwamun and asked for support from workers in central Seoul.
Lee is scheduled to rally at Wangsimni Station in eastern Seoul and meet members of the Korean National Police Veterans Association later in the day. In the evening, he will campaign in Hongdae, western Seoul, to promote his pledges to young people.
Yoon criticized the current administration’s real estate policies.
“Their real estate policies are deliberate and malicious,” he said during his campaigning in Yongin, south of Seoul. “Just look at this government’s policies.”
In nearby Seongnam, Yoon slammed Lee over a massive corruption scandal surrounding an apartment development project conducted in the city when the DP candidate was in office as its mayor.
“He ran the city of Seongnam with 1 million people like this,” he said. “Imagine what the country of 50 million population would be like.”
Yoon will later rally in Seoul, visiting Songpa, Seocho and Jongno districts.
Meanwhile, the campaign of Ahn Cheol-soo, presidential candidate of the minor opposition People’s Party (PP), remained suspended as he focused on funeral services of two campaign workers.
The workers, a local campaign chief and a bus driver, were found dead in a bus on Tuesday evening, apparently from gas poisoning.
Sim Sang-jeung, the presidential candidate of the progressive Justice Party, visited the southeastern industrial city of Ulsan and promoted her labor policies to factory workers.
Source: Yonhap News Agency