The Korea Local Administration Review

The study began with a research question, “Does the 7th local elections reveal regional policy issues that are not buried in central politics and reflect local conditions and the needs of local residents?” Previous studies on local elections analyzed mainly the number of votes based on frequency analysis or pledges by specific field. The previous study ignores that in Korea, messages and election strategies revealed through official reports after the party nomination system was implemented, greatly affect the candidates ‘policy pledges. Therefore, to overcome the limitations of prior research, this study analyzed the dynamics of policy issues shown during the 7th local elections through official reporting. In addition, Twitter analysis, which is more contagious than other social media, identified the context of general citizens’ overall communication of policy issues. The analysis showed that official reports by political parties were heavily buried in issues of central politics rather than in policy pledges specific to local elections. In the case of Twitter analysis, the big issue of central politics centering on the president led online communication networks.

□ Keywords: The 7th Local Election, Policy Issues, The Party Nomination System, Central Politics, Social Network, Social Media