DP chairman Rep. Sohn Hak-kyu will chair the election committee and Park Young-sun of the DP and Choi Kyu-yeop of the minority Democratic Labor Party, who lost in the bloc’s internal race, are also expected to act as directors in the camp.

While parties and civic groups bustled to form the joint camp, Park on Sunday unveiled 10 key policies, including his pledge to cut Seoul’s debt by 7 trillion won ($5.9 billion).

He also promised to expand the disputed free school meals to all grades by year 2014.

Na Kyung-won of the ruling Grand National Party, whose camp was started up last Thursday, is set to launch attacks at Park.

While Na still struggled to catch up with Park’s support rate, her camp also faced blame for Rep. Shin Ji-ho, who stepped down from his post as spokesperson after appearing in a television debate program on Friday under the influence of alcohol.

The GNP candidate mostly focused on the civic activist’s policies.

“None of Park’s policies have so far been sufficiently clear,” Na said on Saturday.

“He needs to be more constructive or else his words will be no more than mere campaign slogans.”

Na, who recently reinforced her welfare policy lines, pledged on Sunday to improve monthly housing rent conditions for all income brackets.

“I will boost the supply of small, low-priced houses in the relatively poor districts and maintain control over real estate prices in the affluent districts,” she said.

She also pledged earlier to slash the city’s excessive construction budgets, directed by the two former GNP-affiliated mayors Lee Myung-bak and Oh Se-hoon, and to allocate the amount to the welfare, environment and education sectors.

Both candidates also slammed each other on ethics charges, despite their initial resolution to refrain from mud-slinging.

Na accused Park of partially evading his military duties through a pro forma adoption, as well as taking monetary donations from conglomerates while running the Beautiful Foundation, a non-profit welfare organization.

“If Park was subject to a parliamentary hearing, he would long have been disqualified,” said the GNP spokesperson.

Though Park’s camp has so far appeared unfazed by the accusations, the DP staged a counterattack, referring to Na as “just another Oh Se-hoon.”

The liberal bloc also slammed the inappropriate behavior of Na’s former spokesperson Shin.

The heated competition between Park and Na is expected to pick up further heat during the week, through four open debate forums.

By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldcorp.com)