South Korea poll race turns animated
2012-12-19 19:29
Seoul - South Korea's rival presidential candidates
danced to celebrate their respective victories across the country on Wednesday,
or at least animated cartoon characters representing them did as broadcasters
sought to inject life into a lacklustre campaign.
Broadcaster SBS showed a grinning conservative candidate,
Park Geun-hye, and her left-wing challenger, Moon Jae-in, running a marathon
across South Korea, with the cartoon candidate winning the vote leading the
race.
At YTN news, a cartoon caricature of the 60-year single
woman Park danced ecstatically as votes falling to her came in. Moon danced
less and was often pictured with hands on hips while his opponent gyrated
ecstatically.
Park was leading Moon by 52% to 47.5% at 12:45 with more
than half the votes counted.
Both of the candidates have put in wooden performances in
debates, especially compared with the US presidential election where Barack
Obama and Mitt Romney went head to head in tense, vote-changing clashes.
South Korean television appeared to be using the cartoons
to appeal to voters in the most wired country in the world, where young people
are glued to their smartphones, playing animated games like Angry
Birds.
Traditionally, coverage of South Korean elections has
been driven by graphics and other visuals.
SBS set its coverage of the race to a song called Bad Case of Loving You by Robert Palmer.
Mark MacKinnon, a correspondent for Canada's Globe and
Mail newspaper, tweeted: "After watching how South Korean TV covers an
election, I'll never watch CNN again."
CNN correspondent Paula Hancocks responded: "Don't
worry, I'm taking notes!"
