South Korean parties made a final appeal to voters on Wednesday before a parliamentary election high on emotion over the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun but low on policy debate.
The electoral watchdog is projecting a high turnout in Thursday's elections for the 299-seat National Assembly in which Roh's impeachment has overshadowed issues such as North Korea's nuclear threat, South Korean troops in Iraq or youth unemployment.
The National Election Commission said a recent survey indicated that 88.7 percent of voters "intended" to vote. Of them, 77.2 percent said they would "definitely" cast ballots.
Turnout, especially among youth who have historically stayed away from polls, is especially critical for the pro-Roh Uri Party, whose election strategy has been to capitalise on anger at Roh's impeachment by the opposition-controlled parliament.
The opposition impeached Roh on March 12 for a minor election law violation, incompetence and alleged involvement in corruption scandals. Roh, whose approval ratings were low, gained sympathy from a public who thought the opposition had overplayed its hand.
Roh has been sidelined and his fate is in the hands of the Constitutional Court.
The race among 14 parties is mostly a showdown between the centre-left Uri Party and the conservative Grand National Party.
Neither party is now projected to win a majority in the single-chamber assembly.
Both have drawn fire from South Korean media for expending more energy on attacking each other than on elaborating policy for Asia's fourth-biggest economy.
The Uri Party says keeping parliament in the hands of the Grand National Party will thwart Roh's reform plans.
"My heart breaks at the mere thought of a situation in which dark forces again grab parliament, monopolise government and lord it over the people," said Uri parliamentary leader Kim Keun-tae.
The Grand Nationals say they offer stability and a check on Roh and a radical agenda soft on militant labour and North Korea.
"Only a healthy, rational opposition that curbs and corrects the errors of the president and ruling party can put the country to right," said Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye.
"Tomorrow's election will turn on whether people accept the GNP's argument that we need to check a large ruling party or Uri's call for applying the breaks to a big opposition party," said politics professor Cho Ki-suk of Ehwa Women's University.
Party heavyweights spent the final day canvassing the populous Seoul metropolis, which has 97 of the 299 seats.
Foreign investors are watching the election because they fear instability in a major US ally on the front line with North Korea, a hostile communist state whose pursuit of nuclear weapons has kept the region on the brink of crisis for two years.
North Korea, barely a factor in the election, called on voters to deal a heavy defeat to the Grand National Party, which takes a hard line against Pyongyang.
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