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Conservatives dominate Korean polls

"The humiliating electoral results for the Uri Party will constrain the president's ability to implement his reform objectives."

Bruce Klingner, Asia analyst for Eurasia Group

South Korea's governing party leader resigned yesterday after taking the blame for the resounding defeat in the country's local elections swept by the conservative opposition.

Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-young said he accepted the people's "reprimand" of the party in a "prudent and humble manner" at a press conference. The former unification minister had hoped to be Uri's candidate for the 2007 presidential elections.

According to the National Election Commission, the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP) secured 12 out of 16 key regional posts in Wednesday's poll, including the mayors in the country's political center Seoul, the southern city of Busan and the governor of Gyeonggi Province surrounding the capital.

President Roh Moo-hyun's liberal Uri Party only won the gubernatorial race in North Jeolla.

The GNP's candidate Oh Se-hoon, a lawyer, was elected as the new Seoul mayor with more than 60 per cent of the vote, Kang Kum-sil from Uri.

The vote for nearly 3,900 posts for mayors, governors, city councilors and regional assembly members was also seen as a sign of how the parties and their yet to be named candidates will fare in the December 2007 presidential election. It puts the conservative opposition Grand National Party (GNP) in the driver's seat in that poll and parliamentary elections the following year.

Roh, who won the presidential race in 2002, cannot run for a second five-year term.

The victory of the GNP is a boost for party chairwoman Park Geun-hye who hopes to run as the candidate for the 2007 race. She is the daughter of former military president Park Chung-hee, who was assassinated in 1979.

Voter turnout for the local elections was estimated at 51.3 per cent, the election commission said. The figure was only 2.9 percentage points higher compared with local elections in June 2002, when the opposition also succeeded. There were 37.06 million eligible voters.

The elections were seen as a test of the Uri Party's waning popularity and the party's reform agenda. The GNP's sweeping victory in the elections comes on the heels of two major setbacks for Uri in parliamentary by-elections over the past year.

"The humiliating electoral results for the Uri Party will constrain the president's ability to implement his reform objectives, since he will be increasingly perceived as a lame duck," said Bruce Klingner, an Asia analyst for the US-based Eurasia Group.

Roh, a former labor lawyer who narrowly won the 2002 presidential poll, has struck an accommodating tone towards Pyongyang. He said earlier this year he was willing to make "many concessions" and give "unconditional assistance" to North Korea.

Roh also had run-ins with Washington, warning the Bush administration that Seoul would not support the US taking hardline policies toward Pyongyang.

The GNP takes a tough line against its neighbor across the heavily militarized border. Its leaders have criticized Roh's government for not doing enough to protect human rights in North Korea and said Seoul should attach more strings to the massive aid it gives Pyongyang.

Klingner said Wednesday's election results could mean that Uri would split, with those who want to see more pragmatic policies on economic reform and foreign policy likely to walk out, leaving behind supporters of more sweeping reforms.

Roh's popularity has dwindled while in office. His support ratings fell below 30 percent in recent polls on perceptions that his government has failed to boost the economy and mismanaged foreign affairs.
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