“I have the IQ of 430.” I will transfer to the UN office from New York to Panmunjeom, if I become a president.” These are the analects of Huh Kyung-young, a South Korean politician of the Economic Republican Party. Although Lee won the presidential election, Huh came into the spotlight in this election. He was famous for making bizarre pledges and interesting speeches. It made people interested in him, creating a new catch phrase ‘Syndrome of Huh’. Not only Huh but also many minor candidates participated in the presidential election. They made election pledges and eagerly campaigned during the campaign period. However, they suffered a crushing defeat in the election. It is not too much to say that it was impossible for them to win the election. Despite that, minor candidates’ challenges have become an annual expected event in every presidential election.

 Syndrome
 Minor candidates attracted the most attention in the 17th presidential election last year. The number of minor candidates participated in the election was large, their interesting pledges and utterances made some headlines. Especially, Huh Kyung-young was supported by the netizens through his pledges and utterances.
 The reason why they had received so much attention in this election was that the atmosphere of this election was not interesting at all. Before the campaign period, the expectation that Lee would win in this election dominated the public. The strong candidates did not make many pledges or create competition but criticized and divulge irrationality with each other. Therefore, voters were tired of it and began to search for something interesting and appealing in the election and they found the minor candidates.

 Their purpose
 For the sake of participating in the presidential election, 5 hundred million won should be paid as trust money. In addition, if one receives over 15% of the vote, one can get back the money that was used in the election campaign funds. However, most of them could not obtain over 15% of the vote, so they suffered a big loss. Actually, there is little hope for their victory. Despite this, they still appeared in the election, enduring it.
 Keum Min, who was the representative of Korea Socialist Party, is one of the candidates who participated in the 17th presidential election last year. His slogan was “For a new progress, and daring proposal.” To overcome the crisis of progress, he wanted to reform this wrong progress and decided to participate in the election. He said, “I want to break the old and stiff progression of this country and govern a country, bring harmony with the people.” In the election, he received 0.1% of the vote and suffered a humiliating defeat. He resigned his position as a representative of his party. However, he still has hope. He said, “I think that the few votes I received will be my starting line to make Korean politics renew. ”   

 Their campaign
 Minor candidates are short of election campaign funds and networking. Their parties are also much smaller than that of the strong candidates’. Therefore, instead of major newspaper advertisements, TV broadcasting, they campaigned online. Keum Min campaigned at the online bulletin board concerned with the presidential election, or the Pandora TV, such as an UCC site.
 Huh, Kyung-young became famous for making bizarre claims, such as that he had the IQ of 430, or that he possessed supernatural powers and can teleport or heal the sick with his power. Moreover, he claimed that he was a secret adviser to President Park Chung-hee. He spread a photo, taken with George W. Bush, U.S. President. This photo was proven a forgery later. Nevertheless, the number of netizens who support him was enlarged, and after all, he got about 96,000 votes.  

Huh’s main election pledges
1. The government will support a new couple with the funding of 50 million won.
2. The government will support a couple who give birth to a child with funding of 3 million won.
3. The government will support the elderly, who are over 60 years old with the funding of 50 thousand won.
4. A person with bad credit will be given a chance to be relieved.
5. The number of members of the national assembly will be reduced to 100.

 A sense of alienation
 Actually, minor candidates are treated differently, in spite of their participation in every election. In addition, they cannot do the election campaign well because of the election laws that bully them.
 Their parties are small-scale groups and their capital strength is weak. Therefore, they mainly campaign online, which makes them relatively free from the pressure of the expenditure of funds. However, according to article 93 of the election law, it is a violation that candidates ask for support for himself or against a specific person by using the Internet. On the other hand, the election laws do not restrict strong candidates. Although strong candidates express their need for support or oppose their competitors, the law cannot take sanctions against them because of their power. In case of minor candidates who have weak power, as they consider the law’s restriction, the size of their places where they can campaign is smaller.      
 Indifference of the press also makes ir hard for them to campaign. Minor candidates have decent educational backgrounds, careers, and election pledges. However, the press does not focus on them. If we see the major newspaper during the campaign, we can notice many advertisements about strong candidates. Minor candidates are presented in local newspaper advertisement most of the time.
Strong candidates also can participate in a TV debates many times. However, minor candidates are only allowed at certain times. The difference of the scale and capital strength between strong and minor candidates allows for discriminations. 

 They are also candidates like them
 As minor candidates participate in the election, paying 5 hundred million won as trust money, they should get a fair chance. In addition, the government should push for economic support and give more chances for these candidates to appear on TV broadcasts, such as a TV debate. The election laws that restrict their novel campaign promises and slogans should be eased. This way, there will be more various and interesting election campaigns and election culture will become prosperous. 

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