{"id":40247,"date":"2026-06-03T13:23:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/40247\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T13:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T13:23:12","slug":"exit-polls-suggest-big-local-election-win-by-south-koreas-ruling-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/40247\/","title":{"rendered":"Exit polls suggest big local election win by South Korea’s ruling party"},"content":{"rendered":"

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 Exit polls suggested that South Korea\u2019s ruling liberal party was projected to win a landslide victory in Wednesday\u2019s mayoral and other local elections, a result that if confirmed would give President Lee Jae Myung<\/a> a firmer political mandate to advance his agenda.<\/p>\n

A victory by Lee\u2019s Democratic Party had been widely expected because its main rival, the conservative People Power Party, remains in disarray after President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office and sentenced to life in prison<\/a> over his martial law debacle<\/a> in late 2024. <\/p>\n

The joint exit polls by South Korea\u2019s three major TV stations \u2014 KBS, MBC and SBS \u2014 showed the Democratic Party was forecast to win at least 11 of the 16 mayoral and provincial gubernatorial posts up for grabs in Wednesday\u2019s elections. The polls suggested the PPP had a clear lead in only one race, while the other four races were too close to call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe conservatives\u2019 support base has been fractured and weakened in the wake of Yoon\u2019s impeachment, while the liberals\u2019 support base has grown stronger,\u201d said Jeong Han-Wool, director of the Korean People Research Institute. \u201cA win by the ruling party would help provide the Lee government with a considerably stable political foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Election win would give Lee a further boost<\/p>\n

Thursday will mark one year in office for Lee<\/a>, who won a snap election triggered after Yoon\u2019s ouster. Lee\u2019s approval ratings still hover over 60%. He\u2019s been credited with what he calls \u201cpragmatic diplomacy\u201d that eased concerns that his rule would hurt ties with the U.S. and Japan. His popularity has also been attributed to a booming stock market and efforts to be more transparent about his decision-making procedures. <\/p>\n

Whatever the outcome of Wednesday\u2019s election, Lee\u2019s foreign policy agenda<\/a> will likely remain unchanged. The Democratic Party would also maintain its majority status at parliament, though 14 new members of the 300-member National Assembly will be chosen in by-elections on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

With more allies at mayoral and gubernatorial posts, Lee could pursue his regional policies more easily and effectively, given 14 of the 16 regional leadership posts are currently held by the PPP, said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of Presidential Leadership. <\/p>\n

That will help his party\u2019s preparations for the 2028 parliamentary elections, Choi said.<\/p>\n

Much attention is focused on Seoul\u2019s mayoral race <\/p>\n

The Seoul mayoral election is considered the most important one. Without winning it, experts said the Democratic Party couldn\u2019t claim an outright victory in overall elections, no matter how many races it won. <\/p>\n

The race pits the Democratic Party\u2019s Chong Won-o, a former Seoul district head who rose after Lee publicly praised his governance last October, against current mayor and political heavyweight Oh Se-hoon with the PPP.<\/p>\n

The exit polls showed Chong running ahead of Oh by 5.4 percentage points. <\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Oh accused Chong of relying on \u201cthe president\u2019s coattails,\u201d while Chong slammed Oh over what he called the mayor\u2019s incompetent and irresponsible governance style. <\/p>\n

Election results are crucial for the conservative opposition<\/p>\n

The PPP is still struggling with internal feuding between reformists who joined the Democratic Party-led push to impeach Yoon and his loyalists who attempted to protect the embattled leader<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the candidates running for the parliamentary by-elections is Han Dong-hoon<\/a>, leader of the reformist faction who was eventually expelled from the PPP. Pre-election surveys show Han, now an independent, holding a slim lead over the Democratic Party\u2019s Ha Jung-woo, a former Lee adviser on artificial intelligence, in a race in Busan, the country\u2019s second biggest city. <\/p>\n

Jeong, the institute director, said that a Han victory could help anti-Yoon reformists regroup and emerge as a new force among the struggling conservatives in South Korea. But Choi said Han\u2019s win could worsen a divide in the conservatives because Yoon loyalists would feel a sense of crisis and close ranks further. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) \u2014 Exit polls suggested that South Korea\u2019s ruling liberal party was projected to win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40248,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[24316,198,24306,13465,94,31,146,1149,414,112,33,13343,76,32],"class_list":["post-40247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-south-korea","tag-2026-elections","tag-asia-pacific","tag-conservatism","tag-elections","tag-general-news","tag-korea","tag-lee-jae-myung","tag-oh-se-hoon","tag-politics","tag-seoul","tag-south-korea","tag-voting","tag-world-news","tag-yoon-suk-yeol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40247\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}