By Kim Young-jin
Staff reporter
A Mongolian immigrant was elected as a provincial councilor in Wednesday's local polls, becoming the first non-Korean native to take a local council post.
Lee Ra, a 33-year-old migrant spouse who became a South Korean national in 2008, earned the distinction after being at the top of the governing Grand National Party’s (GNP) list of council candidates for Gyeonggi Province under the proportional representation system.
Under the scheme, parties make a list of candidates and seats are allotted to each party based on the number of votes it garners in the elections.
Lee, currently an immigration office worker, will serve in the Gyeonggi Province Assembly.
"I want to do my best to help adopt policies for immigrants from marriage and multi-cultural families," she said.