Ruling party scores landslide victory in local elections

Lee Jun-seok, center in front row, chairman of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), claps as exit poll results appear on TV on Thursday after voting for the local and by-elections ended. Other ranking PPP members, who gathered at the National Assembly, celebrated as the party was predicted to win the elections. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

PPP grabs 12 out of 17 governor, mayoral posts

By Ko Dong-hwan

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) has scored a landslide victory in Wednesday's local elections, as its candidates defeated their opponents in most key regions.

According to votes counted as of 6:50 a.m. Thursday, with more than 99 percent of votes counted nationwide on average, PPP candidates won in 12 out of 17 elections to select metropolitan mayors and provincial governors.

The PPP's Seoul mayoral candidate, Oh Se-hoon, defeated DPK candidate Song Young-gil. Oh scored 59 percent, compared to Song's 39 percent.

The ruling party's Incheon mayoral candidate, Yoo Jeong-bok won over the DPK's Park Nam-choon by securing more than 51 percent. Park's rate was 44 percent.

Kim Eun-hye, the PPP's candidate in the Gyeonggi gubernatorial election, lost by a narrow margin to former Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon of the DPK. The Gyeonggi election had emerged as the battleground later in the election as polls found the two Kims were in a tight race within the margin of error. Some polls found the PPP's Kim was behind the DPK's candidate. But the public's opinion of the two candidates revealed in Election Day voting told a different story.

DPK candidates won the key posts in only five regions -- Gyeonggi, North and South Jeolla Provinces, Gwangju and Jeju.

The results are slightly different from exit poll results released after voting ended at 7:30 p.m. which projected the DPK winning four out of the 17 elections and the PPP winning 10. The poll forecast three other elections were too close to call to project winners as the candidates of the two parties were neck in neck within the margin of error. The three were Gyeonggi, Sejong and Daejeon.

The exit poll was taken by the Korean Broadcasters' Association (KBA) in collaboration with three broadcasters, KBS, SBS and MBC, and the results were made public simultaneously at 7:30 p.m. when voting for COVID-19 patients ended.

The exit poll showed the PPP beat the DPK for the mayoral posts in Seoul, Incheon, Busan, Ulsan and Daegu, and for the provincial governor posts in South Gyeongsang, North Gyeongsang, South Chungcheong, North Chungcheong and Gangwon.

The PPP's Busan mayoral candidate, Park Hyeong-joon, beat the DPK's Byun Sung-wan 66.9 percent to 32.2 percent. The PPP's Daegu mayoral candidate, Hong Joon-pyo, defeated the DPK's Seo Jae-heon 79.4 percent to 18.4 percent.

The DPK beat the PPP for the mayoral posts in Gwangju, and for the provincial governor posts in South Jeolla, North Jeolla and Jeju Special Self-governing Province.

The DPK's Gwangju mayoral candidate Kang Ki-jung defeated his PPP rival Joo Gi-hwan 77.4 percent to 15.4 percent, and the DPK's Jeju governor candidate Oh Young-hun defeated the PPP's Huh Hyang-jin 56.5 percent to 39.1 percent.

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The exit poll outcome, tilted heavily towards the PPP, has shown a contrary picture compared to the local elections in 2018 when the DPK candidates took victories in 14 out of 17 governor and mayoral posts in the local elections.

The exit poll also showed that two former presidential candidates ― the DPK's Lee Jae-myung and the PPP's Ahn Cheol-soo ―- are highly expected to make a political comeback through the by-elections held along with Wednesday's local elections.

The DPK's Lee, who lost to President Yoon Suk-yeol in a close margin in the March election this year, beat the PPP's Yoon Hyeong-seon 55.24 percent to 44.75 percent in the by-election for a parliamentary seat representing Gyeyang-B District in Incheon. The PPP's Ahn, who ran for a parliamentary seat representing Bundang-A District in Seongnam, trumped the DPK's Kim Byoung-gwan 64 percent to 36 percent in the by-election.

For education chief posts, the exit poll projected liberal candidates will win constituencies in Seoul, Ulsan, Sejong, , Gwangju, South Chungcheong, North Jeolla and South Jeolla, whereas conservative candidates will claim victories in constituencies in Daejeon, Daegu, North Gyeongsang, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, North Chungcheong and Jeju. It was too close to call in Incheon, South Gyeongsang and Busan.

From left are Park Ji-hyun, interim co-leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), Lee Jae-myung of the DPK who ran in the by-election in Incheon's Gyeyang-B electoral district, Yun Ho-jung, interim co-leader of the party, and its floor leader Park Hong-keun. They look devastated as exit poll results appear on TV at the National Assembly on Thursday. Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

The ranking lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party gathered at the National Assembly Library at 7 p.m. on Wednesday to watch the ballot count together. The ruling party politicians jumped and hugged each other as they watched the exit poll outcome.

"The exit poll result came out largely as we expected," PPP chairman Lee Jun-seok said. "We, however, found it somewhat disappointing with what our candidates achieved in Gyeyang-B and Jeju."

Rep. Yun Ho-jung and Park Ji-hyun, the interim leaders of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), gathered at the National Assembly at 7:30 p.m. to watch together the country's TV broadcasters reporting exit polls followed by a live ballot count. Lee Jae-myung, the party's chief of the election management committee, who also ran for a parliamentary seat in Gyeyang-B District in the Incheon by-election, also joined.

The DPK politicians largely appeared in a grief after the exit poll result came out.

Rep. Yun, when asked by a reporter at the National Assembly if the exit poll outcome was what he expected, nodded. "I appreciate all who voted," Yun said, adding he will be monitoring the ballot count that is expected to continue until Thursday morning.

Park said the exit poll result came out "worse than I expected…It's kind of a huge blow."

If ballot count results come out similar to the exit poll that projected victory for the ruling party in majority of the mayoral and governor posts, it is expected to give a major boost to the Yoon Suk-yeol administration.

According to the National Election Commission, voter turnout was tentatively tallied at 50.9 percent as of 7:30 p.m., which translates to over 22.5 million voters. The figure is the lowest since the 2010 elections.

About 44.3 million of the nation's people were eligible to vote in the country's eighth local elections and some 127,000 are permanent residents of foreign nationality according to the election watcdog. These voters have earned the right to vote in Korea's local elections due to living here for at least three years, after obtaining permanent resident status. Approximately 79 percent of these 127,000 voters are of Chinese nationality.

Foreign national permanent residents fitting the eligibility criteria are allowed to vote in local elections only, not in presidential elections or legislative elections.

Voters cast their ballots in over 14,000 polling stations nationwide, from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.

Those infected with COVID-19 were allowed to vote from 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

This year's local elections were also held to select 226 heads of city districts and local county offices nationwide, 872 seats in city and provincial councils, 2,988 seats in lower-level local councils. By-elections were simultaneously held in seven electoral districts in Daegu, Incheon, Seongnam, Wonju, Changwon, Seocheon County and Jeju City, alongside the local elections.

Over 9.13 million citizens voted in the early voting period May 27-28. The figure jumped 0.48 of a percentage point from those who had voted during the early voting period of the previous local elections held in 2018. This election's early voting turnout was the highest record in the country's history for early voting periods in local elections.