POLLS IN SOUTH KOREA

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26125, 30 May 1950, Page 5

POLLS IN SOUTH KOREA

Electoral Freedom To Be Guaranteed 2170 CANDIDATES FOR ASSEMBLY (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) (Rec. 9.30 p.m.) SEOUL, May 29. Eight million South Koreans will vote to-morrow in free elections. The YRj ;ers w iH elect 210 members from 2170 candidates for their National Assembly. The Communist Party is banned in South Korea, but otherwise the President (Dr. Syngman Rhee) has guaranteed freedom of election. At Dr. Rhee’s request, United Nations representatives will observe the polling. In spite of Communist pressure along the frontier of Soviet-dominated North Korea and within the South Korean Republic, the election campaign has been quiet, in contrast with the 1948 elections, when about 900 persons were killed or wounded. Four Americantrained South Korean divisions are stationed along the frontier. A total of 1496 of the election candidates are standing as Independents. The parties have similar platforms, all favouring unification with North Korea by constitutional means. A hundred seats in the single-chamber Legislature are still hopefully reserved for North Korean representatives.

A major political issue to be decided by election is whether the Prime Minister should be elected by the National Assembly, and in turn‘select his Cabinet, or whether the President should continue to exercise both prerogatives. The Democraiic Nationalists’ 155 candidates strongly favour the first course. The Korean Nationalists, with 113 candidates, and most of the other parties support the President’s retention of his present powers.