President Yoon Suk-Yeol has gained a major boost in his administrative and policy drive after voters sided with the ruling People Power Party (PPP) which achieved a landslide win in Wednesday’s local and by-elections.
The resounding victory for Yoon’s party came less than three months after he won the presidential election by a narrow margin against his opponent and just three weeks after he took office.
After vote counting for Wednesday’s local and by-elections ended on Thursday, the PPP clinched 12 out of 17 provincial governor and metropolitan mayor posts. The DPK won in governor elections in Gyeonggi Province, Jeju Province, and South and North Jeolla provinces as well as the Gwangju mayoral race.
In the race for Gyeonggi Province governor, PPP candidate Kim Eun-Hye maintained an early lead, but DPK candidate Kim Dong-Yeon staged an upset to win by 49.06 percent to 48.91 percent after all votes were counted on early Thursday morning.
Along with the large municipalities, the PPP swept 170 out of 226 mayors, district head and county governor posts, followed by the DPK with 63, the Jinbo (Progressive) Party with one and 17 independent candidates.
In the parliamentary by-elections in seven constituencies, five PPP candidates clinched their Assembly seats and two were claimed by the DPK candidates. This resulted in the DPK holding 169 seats in the assembly, followed by the PPP with 114, the Justice Party with six, and two other parties each having one seat. There are eight independent lawmakers and one seat remains unoccupied.
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Presidential spokeswoman Kang In-Seon, Thursday, quoted Yoon as saying that he took the election results as “the people’s wish to revive the economy and take better care of the public’s livelihood.”
“To this end, the central government will join hands with local governments to shoulder difficulties together,” Yoon was quoted as saying. “The Yoon government will spare no efforts to stabilize the public’s livelihood, with its economy-first principle.”
With members of the PPP claiming most of the major posts in the elections, the ruling party will control the central and local governments, while the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) will have its grip only on legislative power. The DPK still holds a majority in the 300-seat Assembly.
This will pave the way for the Yoon administration’s initiative to lay the groundwork for the president to introduce his economic initiatives and policies for balanced regional development. As the elections also proved that the public has grown weary of the DPK, the main opposition party is anticipated to be more cooperative with Yoon’s policies, rather than holding them back.
The PPP celebrated its victories in the elections but pledged not to be arrogant about the results, saying that doing so could make the party repeat the failures and mistakes the DPK committed.
“Voters gave our party sweeping support, a result we should be thankful for and also be afraid of,” PPP Chairman Lee Jun-Seok said during a party meeting, Thursday.
“After winning big in the National Assembly elections held two years ago, the DPK has been intoxicated by its victory and has been wayward without listening to what others said. Now they are grappling with this contrasting result just two years later.”
Democratic Party of Korea co-interim chiefs Yun Ho-Jung, fourth from left, and
Park Ji-Hyun, fifth from left, bow in apology with other interim leaders of the
main opposition party during their press conference at the National Assembly,
Seoul, Thursday. They resigned from their posts to take responsibility for
the party's crushing defeat in the local and by-elections a day earlier.
Korea Times photo by Oh Dae-KeunDPK rocked by the internal rift
The DPK took the results as “a crushing defeat” and promised to reform itself, with its interim chiefs and leadership resigning from their posts.
“We would like to offer our apology to our colleagues and people who supported us,” DPK co-interim chief Yun Ho-Jung said during a press conference at the National Assembly, Thursday. “Also, we deeply appreciate all of those who have believed and supported us despite our shortcomings.”
Despite the leadership’s resignation, voices are growing inside the party that Lee Jae-Myung, a former DPK presidential candidate who lost to Yoon and became a lawmaker in the by-elections, should take the responsibility, signaling an internal rift between pro-and anti-Lee factions.
Lee Nak-yon, a former DPK chairman who staged a fierce rivalry against Lee in the party’s presidential primary last year, criticized the party for its “weird response” to the elections by fielding the former presidential candidate in the latest election.
“The party again suffered a loss after engaging in the local elections as if nothing ever happened in the presidential election,” Lee wrote. “Its weird responses have aggravated the party’s condition. … The 37.7 percent voter turnout in Gwangju is a political impeachment against the DPK.”
Gwangju has been a traditional DPK stronghold.
DPK Rep. Cho Eung-Cheon also said in a radio interview Thursday that “(Lee’s National Assembly bid) was one of the reasons for this crushing defeat.”
