SEOUL, South Korea (AP) 鈥� South Koreans began voting Wednesday in mayoral and other local elections that are seen as a gauge of support for President Lee Jae Myung鈥檚 year-old
Opinion surveys suggested Lee鈥檚 Democratic Party is certain to win more races than its main rival, the conservative People Power Party, which remains in disarray after President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office and over his martial law debacle.
Given its favorable political landscape, experts say the DP must score a landside victory and win some key races such as the mayoral vote in Seoul, the capital, so as to give Lee a clear boost.
鈥淭he conservatives’ support base has been fractured and weakened in the wake of Yoon’s impeachment, while the liberals’ support base has grown stronger. Considering that, results of the elections will determine whether their dominance would prolong for a considerable time,” said Jeong Han-Wool, director of the Korean People Research Institute.
Up for grabs in Wednesday鈥檚 polls are 16 mayoral and provincial gubernatorial posts, 12 of them held by the PPP. Fourteen new members of the 300-member National Assembly will also be chosen in by-elections.
The polls opened at 6 a.m. in about 14,300 stations and are to close at 6 p.m. As of 10 a.m., the voter turnout rate stood at 11%, according to the election commission. South Korea has 44.6 million eligible voters.
Some earlier surveys indicated the DP would win up to 15 of the 16 posts. But newer surveys showed opposition or independent candidates were closing the gap with their DP competitors or even overtook them in five to seven races.
The DP entered the elections with a clear advantage because the public still has strong negative feelings about Yoon鈥檚 in December 2024. Also, the fact that the Lee government is just one year in office could mean more voters view it as a new government which still deserves their support, not their attempt to check its power, said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership.
Subsequently, Choi said that a resounding victory for the DP would be it winning at least 12 races in the elections. He said the party must also win the hotly contested Seoul mayoral race or the Lee government would suffer 鈥渁 tremendous blow.”
The Seoul race pits the DP’s Chong Won-o, a former Seoul district head who rose politically after Lee praised his governance last October, against current mayor and political heavyweight Oh Se-hoon with the PPP.
A Seoul mayor 鈥渋sn’t a post that someone whose campaign solely relies on the president’s coattails can afford,” Oh told reporters Tuesday. 鈥淥ur country would be safer when the rival forces keep each other in check than one side controlling every things. Please, leave Seoul, the last stronghold, in our hands.鈥�
In a separate news conference Tuesday, Chong said he expected Seoul voters to deliver 鈥渁 stern verdict鈥� on Oh over what he called the mayor’s incompetent and irresponsible governance style.
Thursday will mark , whose approval ratings hover over 60%. A key factor attributing to Lee’s popularity is what he describes as 鈥減ragmatic diplomacy鈥� that eased concerns that his rule would hurt ties with the U.S. and Japan. Whatever the outcome of Wednesday’s election, Lee’s foreign policy agenda will likely remain unchanged, experts say.
Lee won a snap-election arranged after the Constitutional Court ruled to remove Yoon over . In February, a Seoul district court convicted Yoon of rebellion and sentenced him to life in prison.
Yoon’s ouster plunged the PPP into a massive infighting between reformists who joined the DP-led push to impeach Yoon and his loyalists who attempted to
Among the candidates running for the parliamentary by-elections is leader of the reformist faction who was eventually expelled from the PPP. Surveys show Han, now an independent, holding a slim lead over the DP’s Ha Jung-woo, a former Lee adviser on artificial intelligence, in a race in Busan, the country’s second biggest city in the southeast.
Jeong, the institute director, said that a Han victory could help anti-Yoon reformists regroup and emerge as a new force among the struggling conservatives in South Korea. But Choi, another institute head, said Han’s win could worsen a divide in the conservatives because Yoon loyalists would feel a sense of crisis and close ranks further.
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