Ruling DP Wins Big in Local Elections, Secures Busan Mayoralty

By Yi Wonju

SEOUL, June 4 (Yonhap) -- The ruling Democratic Party (DP) clinched a resounding victory in the local elections and parliamentary by-elections, winning the key mayoralty in the traditional conservative stronghold of Busan, while the main opposition party retained the Seoul mayoral seat.

The DP won 12 out of the 16 key mayoral and gubernatorial seats up for grabs, including in Busan where Jeon Jae-soo was elected mayor, while the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) took four seats, including Seoul, where incumbent Mayor Oh Se-hoon was elected to a fifth term, according to the final vote count.

Of the total 14 seats contested in the parliamentary by-elections, which were held concurrently with the local elections, the DP clinched nine, followed by the PPP with four seats, while the remaining seat was won by an independent.

Thirteen of the 14 parliamentary seats were previously held by the ruling party, but its loss of four seats was seen as a minor dent to its dominance in the 300-member National Assembly where it already controls a majority.

Wednesday's elections were held exactly one year after the Lee administration took office on June 4.

The victory for the ruling party is widely expected to solidify the government's mandate to push forward with its reform measures while dealing a blow to the embattled PPP as it struggles to rebuild conservative support following former President Yoon Suk Yeol's ouster.

The election outcome marked a sharp turnaround in voter sentiment from four years earlier, when the then ruling PPP had claimed 12 out of 17 major gubernatorial and mayoral positions in the last local elections. The 2022 local elections were held a month after Yoon took office.

In Gyeonggi Province, veteran DP lawmaker Choo Mi-ae won by a wide margin against the PPP's Yang Hyang-ja, becoming the country's first female head of a provincial government.

The capital region -- home to roughly half of the country's population -- is often considered a key, if not the most important, battleground.

In the southeastern city of Busan, DP candidate Jeon was declared the winner against the PPP's Park Heong-joon by a slim margin.

The results for the parliamentary by-elections marked sharply different political fates for two heavyweights -- former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon and Cho Kuk, leader of the liberal Rebuilding Korea Party -- with only Han, who ran as an independent, securing a seat in the National Assembly.

Cho, on the other hand, narrowly lost to Yu Eui-dong of the PPP in the closely watched race of the Pyeongtaek-B constituency, which also included Kim Yong-nam of the DP in a tight three-way competition.

The elections were widely seen as the first nationwide test for Lee, who was elected in a snap presidential election following the ouster of Yoon over his botched martial law bid in December 2024.

Throughout its election campaign, the DP had urged the public to make a stern judgment on what it called the "remnants" of Yoon's "insurrectionist forces."

Yoon was sentenced to life imprisonment by a district court in February for his failed martial law bid.

Also at stake in this year's local elections were 16 education superintendent seats, along with 227 heads of local governments and some 4,000 members of local councils.

In Seoul, the DP won 17 of the city's total 25 district chief posts, a solid improvement from the previous 2022 local elections, when the party secured only eight seats while the PPP captured the remaining 17 seats.

Of the 227 district chief posts nationwide, including those in Seoul, the DP won 119 seats while the PPP secured 95, with the remainder going to independents and a minor party.

This year's elections were partly marred by an unprecedented shortage of ballots at 14 polling stations in parts of Seoul, prompting the temporary suspension of voting there, with some voters said to have left without voting.

The PPP was quick to raise issues over poor election management, calling on the NEC to immediately stop the vote counting and hold a revote if necessary.

Voting took place from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 14,288 polling centers nationwide, with the exception of one of the affected polling stations in Songpa Ward, which extended the voting hours to 10 p.m.