SEOUL (Reuters) - Its election time in super-wired South Korea and the young democracys once giant, and raucous, rallies have gone quiet.
Rivals in the December 19 vote to become president of one of Asias wealthiest societies, now hunt voters by satellite, blogs and mobile phones in a population where almost all adults carry a phone and have easy access to high-speed Internet.
Even television is taking a bit of a backseat in this election for a single five-year term.
"In 2002, the Internet wasnt very effective. But this time, between the TV and Internet its about 50-50," said an aide of the conservative Grand National Partys candidate, Lee Myung-bak, the man most expect to win on Wednesday.
In the virtual presidential campaign, pricey TV ads have not created anything like as much buzz as a video widely seen on the Internet showing Lees wife cooking a meal that costs under 10.
Her creation of the popular savory pancake has struck a chord among Koreans and probably reflects her husbands popularity, an expert said. The video has received 1.3 million hits.
Also doing well, again rather than the candidates themselves, are some of their wives joining a singing contest in which viewers can vote for their favorite over the Internet.
And voters are encouraged to make the most of their mobile phone messaging to send comments of support, photos of illegal campaigning, or to download campaign songs and pictures.
A major, if unexpected, instigator of change has been tough election laws designed to prevent even a whiff of shady practices in a country that saw its first democratically elected president only in 1987.
Candidates can no longer bus in thousands of paid supporters because that smacks of bribery, which means big rallies have largely disappeared in this campaign.
MINI RALLIES
One way around that has been to hold hundreds of mini rallies around the country, using campaign trucks carrying huge TV screens which carry live pictures by satellite of candidates giving campaign speeches.
Lee and his chief rival, liberal candidate Chung Dong-young, between them have more than 500 jumbo TV screens mounted on trucks that can travel around the country carrying their message.
"The political parties are satisfied that voters can simultaneously watch live images of the rallies across the nation," said Ahn In-seok, manager at KT Corp for the project which he said is a world first.
The restrictions on posting views on Internet discussion boards has prompted people to turn increasingly to user created content (UCC) as it is called in South Korea -- or user generated content (UGC) in many other countries.
"(The restrictions) brought about this new media called UCC through which voters can participate in the campaign by saying what they want to the candidates," said Richard Hwang, marketing director of recently established Pandora TV, an Internet site whose video content comes mostly from the public.
Candidates have their own channel, a blog-type page where they and viewers can upload video clips -- from singing to parodies to live videos.
"Lee Myung-baks channel sees up to about 30 new UCCs everyday and his are the most popular. The fan clubs, the parties, election camps and us -- we all post UCCs," said Hwang, adding that more than 300,000 people watch Pandora TVs site every day.
Lee Myung-bak also has a page that looks like a home shopping channel where two presenters set out to convince viewers to buy into his campaign.
"Voters can express their support or criticism of a candidate by creating video clips, contributing to forming public opinion. In this sense, this election can be called a UCC election," said Hwang.
(Writing by Jonathan Thatcher; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
