Opposition-backed candidate forecast to win Seoul mayorship: exit poll

Opposition-backed candidate Park Won-soon is forecast to win Wednesday's by-election for Seoul mayor, television exit polls showed.

Park, a lawyer-turned-activist, is expected to beat his rival Na Kyung-won of the ruling Grand National Party with 54.4 percent of the vote against Na's 45.2 percent, according to a joint exit poll by South Korea's three major TV networks, KBS, MBC and SBS.

A separate exit poll by news cable channel YTN also forecast Park's election with 51.9 percent of the vote against Na's 47.9 percent.

The mayoral vote was considered a crucial bellwether of voter sentiment ahead of next year's parliamentary and presidential elections.

The election was set up as former Mayor Oh Se-hoon voluntarily stepped down in late August after losing a referendum on an opposition-led free school lunch program.

Meanwhile, the Korean Election Commission announced that voter turnout was 43.9 percent with 3,677,052 of the eligible population of 8,374,067 as of the deadline at 8 p.m. in a preliminary tally.(Yonhap)