S.Korea lures voters with "Wonder Girls" and gifts

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea is trying to head off a projected record low turnout for its parliamentary election on Wednesday by luring voters with singing teenagers and discount tickets to parks and museums.

"We have decided to offer voters incentives and step up PR to boost what is expected to be the lowest voter turnout rate ever," the National Election Commission said in a statement obtained on Tuesday.

Polls indicate turnout will be just 50 percent, down from 60.6 percent four years ago, and the lowest since South Korea held its first genuinely democratic election about 20 years ago.

Analysts said voters have been turned off by a campaign mostly devoid of issues and are suffering from election-fatigue after a grueling presidential vote in December.

Even communist North Korea's furious rhetoric over the past week with threats to attack the South has been ignored by voters, long used to the saber-rattling of their hermit neighbor.

To attract voters to the ballot box, the election commission is running an advertising campaign featuring the hugely popular "Wonder Girls", a song and dance group of teenage girls.

It is also, for the first time, offering discount vouchers entitling voters to about $2 off on admission to about 1,400 state-run venues, such as exhibition halls and parks.

The conservative Grand National Party (GNP) of President Lee Myung-bak is expected to win a majority in parliament from left-of-centre forces now in control, helping him implement sweeping reforms to Asia's fourth largest economy.

Latest opinion polls suggest the GNP will pick up at least 160 seats in the 299-seat assembly with its main opponents, the United Democratic Party (UDP), lucky to get 100.