SEOUL (UCAN) - Catholic candidates won 36 races in local administrative elections throughout South Korea June 4, an increase of 11, or just over 30 percent, compared to the last such elections in 1995.
The 36 winners represent 14.5 percent of the country's 248 governors, mayors and heads of basic administrative units, while South Korea's 3.5 million Catholics comprise 7.9 percent of its 44.5 million population. Emmanuel Shim Dae-pyong and Augustine Choi Ki-sun, both from the United Liberal Democrats (ULD), were re-elected respectively as governor of Chungchongnam province and mayor of Inchon, South Korea's third largest city.
Aaron Shim Wan-koo from the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) was re-elected as mayor of the southeastern coastal city of Ulsan.
The other 33 Catholic winners were elected as heads of basic administrative units of cities, counties and wards. In the 1995 elections, only 25 Catholic candidates won leadership posts. The relatively high proportion of Catholics elected is incidental, since candidates were elected on the basis of individual merits, John Baptist Kang In-chul of Hanshin University told UCA News June 5. Kang, a religious sociologist and researcher of Woori Theological Institute, commented on the elections in a June 5 lecture at the Catholic Center of Inchon diocese, which was organized by the diocesan Catholic Youth Solidarity.
However, he said the Catholic Church had continually tried since the 1950s to convert leading politicians to secure its influence in Korean society.
For example, he said, current President Thomas More Kim Dae-jung was baptized a Catholic in 1956, following the advice of John Chang Myon, who became prime minister in 1960 and who stood as Kim's godfather. In all, 16 provincial governors and city mayors, 232 heads of administrative units and 4,180 councilors were elected in the June 4 elections with a voter turnout of 52 percent, the lowest since 1961. The ruling coalition of Kim's National Congress for New Politics and the ULD won a landslide victory, which political observers saw as a boost for Kim, who is pushing for a wide range of economic and political reforms.
UCAN 15. juni 1998