PPP WINS MOST LOCAL ELECTIONS

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At yesterday’s local elections, the governing People Power Party took 12 out of 17 mayoral and gubernatorial seats. The Democratic Party won only five races in the southwestern Honam region and Jeju as well as the closest race in Gyeonggi-do Province, suffering a bone-crushing defeat overall.

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The People Power Party won twelve out of seventeen elections for major cities and provinces. Exit polls conducted by three major networks predicted ten cities and provinces would definitely go to PPP candidates. At the end, the ruling bloc won even in Sejong and Daejeon, two tightly contested mayoral elections, to end up with twelve wins. They defeated the incumbent Democratic Party mayors. The hottest contested election was for the Gyeonggi-do prov. governor. DP’s Kim Dong-yeon had a come-from-behind victory. The main opposition candidates won in the Honam region and Jeju, taking all five seats. The landslide win for the PPP can be attributed to the public sentiment that wants to see the newly inaugurated Yoon Suk-yeol government conduct state affairs soundly. Meanwhile, the DP, which was defeated by a record small margin in the last presidential election, seemed to have turned away voters by imploding during the nomination process for Seoul mayor and the Gyeyang district in Incheon and by failing to resolve internal strifes. The PPP also enjoyed a landslide victory in the elections for leaders of local districts. The ruling bloc candidates won in over 60% of 226 districts nationwide. The traditional support bases for the PPP in the southeastern region and for the DP in the southwest remained unshaken. The Justice Party nominated candidates for seven cities and provinces but lost in all of them, failing to make its presence known in the latest local elections as well as in the presidential election.