Close races in Seoul, 6 other regions

Hidden votes embarrass rulling party

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Staff reporter

The governing Grand National Party (GNP) and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) each won at least five of the 16 metropolitan mayoral and gubernatorial posts in Wednesday's elections, according to an interim tally.

Too close to call races were underway in the key battlegrounds of Seoul and Incheon between candidates of the two parties as of 11 p.m.

Gubernatorial races in South Chungcheong, North Chungcheong, South Gyeongsang and Gangwon provinces and on Jeju were also neck and neck.

Voter turnout reached 54.5 percent, up 2.9 percentage points from that recorded in the 2006 local elections and the second highest since local autonomy was first introduced in June 1995.

The tight Seoul race came as a surprise because incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon led former Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook by a double-digit margin in opinion polls conducted before the elections.

Kim Moon-soo of the GNP was reelected as governor of Gyeonggi Province, defeating Rhyu Si-min, the opposition's unified candidate who was a close confidant of the late former President Roh Moo-hyun.

The minor Liberty Forward Party (LFP), led by Rep. Lee Hoi-chang, won the Daejeon mayoral race. But the result was disappointing for the LFP because it had high expectations in the South Chungcheong gubernatorial race where "Sejong City voters" were expected to vote for the party.

The GNP and the DP swept their home turfs in the Gyeongsang and Jeolla regions, respectively.

But in South Gyeongsang Province, a close race was underway between Lee Dal-gon of the GNP and Kim Doo-kwan, an independent who was also a follower of the late former President Roh.

Followers of Roh, including former Prime Minister Han, performed a lot better than expected.

The higher turnout than expected indicated that so-called "hidden votes" had an effect in the polls.

Hidden votes mean that supporters of opposition parties tend not to reveal who their preferred candidates are to pollsters in surveys taken before the election, creating a discrepancy between survey and election results.

Political scientists said the election results will be an indicator of the general public's assessment of President Lee Myung-bak's job performance in the first half of his presidency.

Previous local elections that took place about two years after a new president took office found that the main opposition party swept seats, defeating the ruling party by a wide margin.

Polling stations were open from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and voters cast eight ballots to select about 4,000 mayors, governors, city and provincial council members, education superintendents and education board members.

Pollsters said good weather discouraged voters from turning out to pick representatives as they were tempted to spend time with their families or go on trips.

Experts said about 20 percent of undecided voters determined the election outcome.