South Korea presidential election

As North Korea marks the first anniversary of the great Kim Jong-II's death and continue to launch rockets despite international warnings, its southern neighbour gears up for its upcoming presidential election, which will take place on Wednesday.

Although a number of independents have emerged, this election is pretty much a two-candidate race. This competition will see Park Geunhye of the ruling Saenuri party take on the Democratic United Party's Moon Jae-in. Ironically, both presidential candidates are associated to former South Korean presidents.

Park Geunhye is the elder daughter of the late Park Chunghee. After her mother was assassinated in 1974, the young Miss Park held the title of "first lady", appearing with her father at public events. She only returned to politics almost 20 years later since 1979 when her father was also assassinated.

Moon Jae-in, who is a lawyer because he did not make it as a judge due to his protests, was the chief of staff to the late Roh Muhyun during his reign as president. He is widely viewed as the choice of younger voters due to his centre-left ideology.

Opinion polls for both candidates over the past few months have seen Park Geunhye having the upper hand. However, the thing is, both candidates hardly differ from one another. Both have similar health and economic proposals and naturally take a hard stance on the North.

This "lack of sparks" situation have made the presidential election look more like Park Chunghee vs Roh Muhyun where both sides have used the ex-presidents to attack each other. As voting is not mandatory in South Korea, the number of voters also plays a crucial part in the outcome.

If more young voters were to turn up at the polling stations, chances are Moon Jae-in will end up as the new president. On the other hand, Park Geunhye, who is more popular among those above 50, will be able to triumph if she can persuade more uncles and aunties to vote.

The decisive group of voters would be those in those in their forties. They are generally breadwinners who matter the most to the country's economy and played a part in transforming South Korea from an authoritarian state into a democracy.

Whoever that gets elected this week won't have an easy time ahead. Tensions with North Korea continue while relations with Japan have been strained due to the territorial dispute of the Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo/Takeshima), credit to current president Lee Myungbak.

I would like to see Moon Jae-in as the victor. His chances have been boosted after far-left candidate Lee Junghee, who constantly attacked Park Geunhye in debates, withdrew her candidacy. But Park Geunhye, who boasts the "Park Chunghee brand", should be able to claim an ultra-narrow win and become the first female president of South Korea.