= Held on Tuesday August 28 from 2pm at the Korea Press Center and included experts from various fields =

The National Election Broadcasting Debate Commission (NEBDC) held the 7th Nationwide Simultaneous Local Elections Candidate Debates Evaluation Symposium together with the Korean Political Science Association at 2pm on August 28 at the Korea Press Center.

While candidate debates during the 7th Nationwide Simultaneous Local Elections played an important role in verifying and judging candidates'' policies and pledges by introducing various debating methods and selecting timely topics, the NEBDC found that there are still parts of the system that need to improve. 

The NEBDC said it expects the symposium will be an opportunity to analyze and evaluate candidates'' debate in a diverse and in-depth way and explore how to develop debates for a mature election culture. 

During the first period Lee Han-Soo, Professor at Ajou University, presented on ''Analysis of broadcasting debates during the 7th nationwide simultaneous local elections: Focusing on voter evaluation'' and the discussants included Yoo Sung-jin, Professor at Scranton College at Ewha Women''s University, Jang Hye-yeong, Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Chung-Ang University, Choi Seong-min, KBS election debate reporter, and Lee Joo-hyun, the Secretary General of the NEBDC.

During the second period Lee So-yeong, Professor of International Relations from Daegu University, presented ''Analyzing the effects of the candidate debates during the 7th nationwide simultaneous local elections: Comparative analysis with the debates held during the 19th presidential candidates'' and discussants included Seo Jeong-geon, Professor of Political Science and Foreign Affairs at Kyunghee University , Cho Jinman, Professor of Political Science and Foreign Affairs at Deokseong Women''s University, Kim Jin-soo, Director of Broadcasting at KBS, and Seo Yang-gyu, Secretary General of the Seoul Metropolitan City Election Broadcasting Debate Commission. 

The NEBDC hopes that anyone interested in participating in the symposium will be able to do so, with up to 100 people allowed to attend on a first-come-first-served basis. The NEBDC also said that they hope to have a lot of interest and participation in the discussions regarding the 7th Nationwide Simultaneous Local Elections candidate debates.