In an increasingly close race to Cheong Wa Dae, candidates Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in rallied in the metropolitan region on Tuesday as they made their last minute pitches to the country’s biggest electorate ahead of the final public polls on Wednesday.

Back at their campaign headquarters, their key economic policymakers took their cues from their television debate a night before and locked horns over their economic democratization pledges.

Former independent candidate and professor-turned-politician Ahn Cheol-soo also traveled around his signature stomping ground ― universities ― around Seoul, ostensibly to help Moon, urging the citizens to head to the polls. Moon’s support ratings has inched a little closer to Park upon Ahn’s declaration of his support last week, with their numbers at 49.9 percent (Park) and 44.8 percent (Moon) as of Tuesday, according to Realmeter.

New releases of surveys will be banned from Thursday according to the elections law.

Observers said the key barometer of who will come out the winner on Dec. 19 will be the voter turnout.

“With the increase in the older demographics among the voters, the voter turnout could be naturally higher. The voter turnout increase by wider participation of the younger voters as hoped by the opposition will be seen if the (turnout reaches) at least around 70 percent,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior analyst at the Korea Society Opinion Institute.

Around 8 to 9 percent of swing voters with a moderate stance and who are apathetic toward established politics are considered crucial in the remaining week.

Park literally took her campaign across the country on Tuesday by visiting Jeju, the southernmost part of Korea, in the morning and touching down in Yeongdeungpo, western Seoul by the evening.

Moon, for his part, visited key Gyeonggi Province cities including Goyang, Euijeongbu, Seongnam, Anyang, Gwangmyeong, Ansan and Bupyeong.

The two also simultaneously released their military-related pledges.

Park vowed to count military enlistment as work experience and double pay for soldiers, a pledge that has been made since the April 11 general elections.

She also vowed to start a fund to help discharged soldiers adapt back into society or return to their education, and to raise the ratio of female soldiers.

Moon’s plans include curtailing the term of enlistment to 18 months from current 21 months and doubling the monthly pay.

Vowing to create stronger security through elite contingents by encouraging larger number of career soldiers, the former Special Forces soldier said the ratio of noncommissioned officers will be increased to 20 percent of the Army compared to the current 12 percent, while working conditions for female officers that account only for 4 percent will also be improved. He also vowed to improve housing and medical services for soldiers.

Back in Yeouido, Kim Chong-in, Park’s chief policymaker and head of the Committee to Pursue People’s Happiness, and Lee Jung-woo, head of Moon’s Economic Democratization Committee, exchanged barbs over their bosses’ economic policies in their separate radio interviews.

The flashing point was Park’s remarks during the Monday television debate, in which she defended her 2007 pledge nicknamed “Julpuse,” an acronym of Korean words referring to reduction of tax, loosening of regulations and setting right the legal order, stating that the measures were no different from economic democratization.

“The two measures (Julpuse and economic democratization) are antonyms. The measures are incredibly dangerous and wrong. It is like a weapon of mass destruction,” Lee, economics professor at Kyungpook National University, said.

“Why has the public livelihood broken down? It is because of Julpuse.”

Kim, an economist-turned-politician, countered Lee’s criticism, saying, “At the time such logic (of Julpuse) was accurate. We just need a new logic as the situation has changed ... The opposition frame their question by saying, ‘What are the differences between Julpuse and economic democratization?’ But this is a wrong way to pose the question. The means of policy constantly changes depending on the situation. It should be understood that because Julpuse has become obsolete, we have come to seek the new term of economic democratization.”

The two also butted heads over each other’s chaebol reform measures.

Kim questioned the validity of Moon’s pledge to dissolve the existing cross-shareholding after a three-year grace period.

Lee, in turn, shot back that Park’s pledge to maintain the existing shareholding was the same as holding onto the “Chaebol Empire.”

Moon, meanwhile, received a boost to his campaign with the announcement of support from former Prime Ministers Lee Su-seong and Chung Un-chan.

Park’s side was seen to concentrate their criticism on the former Roh Moo-hyun administration, associating Moon with the failed policies of the former progressive government.

By Lee Joo-hee (jhl@heraldcorp.com)