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[Anchor]
The dispute over candidates for Seoul’s superintendent of education shows no sign of subsiding.
As legal challenges to the unification process and independent candidacies multiply, critics say the current direct-election system for superintendents is revealing its limits.
I’m Lee Ji-hyun.
[Reporter]
The race for Seoul’s superintendent, held alongside local elections, is intensifying.
With less than a month until the vote, conflicts over candidate unification are disrupting the contest.
On April 23, progressive groups selected Jeong Geun-sik as their unified candidate through a citizen panel vote. But two primary challengers who rejected the result—Han Man-joong and Kang Shin-man—have announced independent runs.
On the conservative side, the unity that produced Yoon Ho-sang, an adjunct professor at Hanyang University, unraveled after former lawmaker Cho Jeon-hyeok registered as an additional candidate.
A new unification body plans to pursue a second round of consolidation through mutual agreement among candidates, but Yoon has strongly opposed that effort.
Observers point to the direct-election system for superintendents as a root cause of these fractures.
Introduced in 2007 and now in its 20th year, the direct-election system excludes party nominations to preserve political neutrality.
That exclusion has led civic groups from different camps to form ad hoc private bodies to select unified candidates. Because those arrangements have no legal binding force, they frequently break down, critics say.
These conflicts recur every election cycle. Many argue the system no longer reflects political realities and needs reform.
Suggested alternatives include a party endorsement system or a running-mate arrangement similar to how governors or mayors run with designated partners.
“Within a year or two, the National Assembly should form a special committee to review the direct-election system for superintendents,” said Kim Yong-il, chairman of the Korea Education Policy Institute. “We need to actively consider alternatives such as a running-mate system and other options.”
Efforts to keep education insulated from politics have paradoxically created a political arena that sidelines substantive debate over education policy.
This is Lee Ji-hyun for Yonhap News TV.
[Video footage: Moon Won-chul]
[Video editing: Choi Yoon-jung]
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Lee Ji-hyun (ji@yna.co.kr)
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