By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff reporter
Followers of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun returned to domestic politics with a much stronger-than anticipated performance in Wednesday's local elections.
Many political observers said the golden days of Roh's close aides were over, especially after the then-governing Democratic Party's defeat in the 2007 presidential election and the prosecution's investigations into the ex-President and his aides on bribery charges.
Much to everyone's surprise, however, Lee Kwang-jae, 45, who was often referred to as Roh's right-hand man, was elected as the first liberal to become governor of Gangwon Province.
Kim Doo-kwan, 51, dubbed "little Roh" due to his common career background with his former boss, won the gubernatorial race in South Gyeongsang Province, home turf of the governing Grand National Party (GNP).
He defeated Lee Dal-gon, who served as minister of public administration and security under the current administration.
Ahn Hee-jung, 45, one of Roh's most trusted former aides, became governor of South Chungcheong Province, where construction is underway of the much-disputed new town, Sejong City.
The late Roh envisioned relocating nine government ministries and four agencies from Seoul to the new city, but President Lee Myung-bak's administration has been pushing to overhaul the plan to make it a more business-friendly town.
Though defeated, two other former key aides ― Han Myeong-sook, 66, who worked as prime minister, and Rhyu Si-min, 51, a minister of health and welfare ― fared far better than forecast.
Han, who ran on the main opposition Democratic Party's ticket in the Seoul mayoral race, garnered 46.83 percent of votes, only 0.6 percentage points behind that of Oh Se-hoon of the GNP, who won reelection in the capital.
Most of the opinion polls before the elections predicted that Oh would win an easy victory by a margin of two-digits.
Many Roh loyalists saw their careers derailed by what appeared to be political motivated investigations, which were highlighted when he committed suicide in May last year, shortly after prosecutors questioned his family for alleged bribe taking.
Han struggled to prepare for the mayoral contest as she had to stand trial for allegedly taking $50,000 worth in bribes from a former president of Korea Express, while serving as prime minister.
The court acquitted Han of the charges in early April, but prosecutors are reportedly investigating another bribe scandal involving her.
Lee Kang-jae, a former two-term lawmaker, quit his political career on March 27 after being investigated for allegedly taking of 160 million won ($130,000) in kickbacks from Park Yeon-cha, chairman of Taekwang Industrial and a longtime friend of the late President.
Ahn Hee-jung also saw his political career go down the drain, when prosecutors concluded April last year that he received 50 million won worth of gifts from Park.
Kim Doo-kwan, the first minister of public administration and security under the Roh administration, also had to endure a bitter time, losing in National Assembly elections consecutively in 2004 and 2008.