South Korea’s ruling Democratic Party swept most seats in the local elections, but failed to flip the crucial Seoul mayoral seat, official results showed yesterday, in a sign that voters sought to keep a check on its power.
The vote was seen as an early referendum on South Korean President Lee Jae-myung’s first year in office.
While Lee’s party won most major races, incumbent conservative mayor Oh Se-hoon narrowly retained Seoul, defeating the Democratic Party’s rising star Chong Won-o in a close contest.
Photo: EPA / YONHAP
With 99.54 percent of ballots counted, Oh of the People Power Party (PPP) held 49.15 percent of the vote, all but securing victory, with Chong trailing on 48.13 percent and few votes left to be counted.
“This election is a victory for common sense,” Oh said. “[South Koreans] have left Seoul as the last safety net of democracy to prevent [the country] from tilting completely to one side.”
About 50 percent of the country’s population resides in Seoul and its surrounding metropolitan area.
Analysts said the failure by Lee’s ally to flip Seoul might suggest an undercurrent of discontent with his liberal party, even though general support for the PPP has collapsed.
Myongji University political science professor Shin Yul said the defeat suggested that centrist voters might have become dissatisfied with the Lee administration.
Lee said the government would “humbly accept the will of the people” and work with newly elected municipal governments regardless of political affiliation.
The Seoul mayoral seat draws extra scrutiny because of the capital’s outsized economic, cultural and political weight, George Mason University Korean Studies Center director Byunghwan Son said.
“Since the election of former president Lee Myung-bak, who was a highly visible Seoul mayor, the position has been widely considered a major stepping stone for future presidential hopefuls,” he said.
The South Korean National Election Commission apologized after 14 Seoul polling stations ran out of ballot papers in an unprecedented mishap blamed on a failure to anticipate turnout.
Lee ordered an investigation into the ballot shortage, condemning “a flaw that is difficult to accept.”
Lee was elected president in June last year after six months of political turmoil triggered by his predecessor, Yoon Suk-yeol, who declared martial law in December 2024 before being impeached and removed from office.
Yoon’s PPP remains divided over the episode.
Its popularity has collapsed, and it suffered a crushing defeat in the local elections — a stark reversal from the landslide victory it secured four years ago.
The Democratic Party, meanwhile, has benefited from Lee’s strong public standing.
It also won nine parliamentary seats in by-elections, while the PPP secured four and an independent candidate won one.
Another closely watched race was a parliamentary by-election in Busan, the country’s second-largest city, where conservative former minister of justice Han Dong-hoon won as an independent.
Hankuk University of Foreign Studies political science professor Lee Jae-mook said the polls showed “public sentiment was nuanced and complex.”
“This election showed that voters sought to hold [Yoon] accountable for his martial law declaration, while at the same time preserving a mechanism to check and balance the current administration,” he added.
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