Anchor: With two days to go to By-election Day, the top two candidates for Seoul mayor have engaged in their final TV debate on Monday. Hosted by the Korea Broadcasting Journalists Club, the focus of the live debate was on real estate and housing policies, among other issues, against a backdrop of public outrage over soaring housing prices. 
Kim Bum-soo has more.  

Report: 

[Sound bite: Live TV debate Park Young-sun vs. Oh Se-hoon (Apr. 5)]

The ruling Democratic Party’s Park Young-sun and main opposition People Power Party’s Oh Se-hoon locked horns in a fierce, unyielding debate in their last TV match-up on Monday.  

Amid the public outrage over rising home prices in the capital city, the ruling party’s former SME Minister Park argued that Seoul will be different under her leadership.

[Sound bite: Democratic Party Seoul Mayor candidate Park Young-sun (Korean-English translation)]
"It is regretful that the housing supply could not catch up with the surge of single-person households. I admit we've failed in forecasting this trend... Park Young-sun's Seoul city will be strikingly different."  

The main opposition party’s former Seoul mayor Oh argued that Park's housing policies were simply unrealistic and unachievable.

[Sound bite: People Power Party Seoul Mayor candidate Oh Se-hoon (Korean-English translation)]
"Candidate Park Young-sun's housing policy pledges are close to impossible. She is planning on building apartments where a water treatment center generated bad odor... " 
"She has promised 300-thousand homes without a clear plan." 

Park argued during the debate that her rival lied about the controversial land development project, which allegedly benefited his wife and her family. 

Oh said Park’s candidacy itself is a lie by the ruling camp, which had promised not to produce a candidate for a by-election made necessary due to its elected members' indiscretion while in office. 

Both mayoral positions in the capital Seoul and the second-largest city of Busan were vacated by the ruling party's members. Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon had committed suicide amid sexual harassment allegations involving his secretary last year, and  former Busan Mayor Oh Keo-don stepped down just three months before that, confessing to sexual misconduct with his staff. 

The final TV debate follows a weekend of early voting that wrapped up on Saturday with the highest turnout for by-elections at 20-point-54 percent.

Rival parties had urged the public to actively participate in early voting, and both have taken the record-high turnout as a positive sign in their favor.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.