Seoul, Apr 10 (AP) South Korea's liberal opposition parties
were expected to win a landslide victory in Wednesday's
parliamentary election, initial exit polls suggested, a result
that if confirmed would make conservative President Yoon
Suk Yeol a lame duck for his remaining three years in office.
The joint exit polls by South Korea's three major TV stations
– KBS, MBC and SBS – showed the main opposition
Democratic Party and its satellite party were forecast to win
combined 178-197 seats in the 300-member National
Assembly. They expected anothernew liberal opposition
party to win 12-14 seats.
The polls suggested the ruling People Power Party and its
satellite party were projected to win 85-105 seats.
Wednesday's election was widely seen as a mid-term
confidence vote on President Yoon, a former top prosecutor
who took office in 2022 for a single five-year term. He has
been grappling with low approval ratings and a liberal
opposition-controlled parliament that has limited his major
policy platforms.
Regardless of the results, Yoon will stay in power, but if his
party fails to regain a parliamentary majority it could set
back Yoon's agenda and further intensify conservative-
liberal fighting.
“What would matter to the People Power Party is whether it
can become the biggest party or the second biggest party,”
said Choi Jin, director of the Seoul-based Institute of
Presidential Leadership. “If his party loses the election, Yoon
will find it difficult to move forward even a single step on
state affairs.”
Of the 300 seats, 254 will be elected through direct votes in
local districts, and the other 46 to the parties according to
their proportion of the vote. Election observers say
candidates in about 50 to 55 local districts are in neck-and-
neck races.
In the months ahead of the election, the conservatives
supporting Yoon and their liberal rivals exchanged toxic
rhetoric and mudslinging. The conservative-liberal division
deepened during the 2022 presidential election, during
which Yoon and his main rival Lee Jae-myung spent months
demonizing each other. Yoon eventually beat Lee by the
narrowest margin ever for a Korean presidential candidate.
Lee, now the chairman of the opposition Democratic Party, is
a harsh critic of Yoon's policies and is eying another
presidential bid. He faces an array of corruption
investigations that he argues are politically motivated and
pushed by by Yoon's government.
There was a brief soul-searching about South Korea's
divisive politics after Lee was stabbed in the neck in January
by a man who, according to police, tried to kill Lee to prevent
him from becoming president. But as the parliamentary
election approached, the rival parties began churning out
abusive rhetoric and crude insults against each other.
Ruling party leader Han Dong-hoon called Lee “a criminal”
and labeled his past comments as “trash.” Lee's party
spokesperson described Han's mouth as a “trash bin.” Han
accused Lee of using a sexist remark against a female ruling
party candidate.
During one of his final campaign events on Tuesday, Han
argued that giving too many seats to Lee's Democratic Party
will throw South Korea into political turmoil. “Tomorrow's
12 hours will determine whether the Republic of Korea will
plunge into shocking chaos and despair or overcome a
crisis,” Han said, using South Korea's official name.
Speaking ahead of his corruption trial at a Seoul court, Lee
urged voters to punish the Yoon government, which he said
has used prosecutors to suppress opponents. “I earnestly ask
you to hand out your judgement on a government that
betrays and goes against the people,” Lee said.
Chung Jin-young, a former dean of the Graduate School of
Pan-Pacific International Studies at Kyung Hee University,
predicted that the opposition parties could win a combined
150-180 seats.
“That would cause a political deadlock for the Republic of
Korea for the next three years, as both the ruling and
opposition parties can't pursue things unilaterally and won't
likely make terms with each other,” Chung said.
Earlier this year, Yoon saw rising approval ratings over his
strong push to drastically increase the number of medical
students despite vehement protests by incumbent doctors.
Yoon has said he aims to create more doctors to brace for
the country's rapidly aging population, but thousands of
young doctors have gone on strike, saying that schools can't
handle an abrupt increase in students.
The doctors' walkouts eventually left Yoon facing growing
calls to find a compromise, with patients and others
experiencing delays of surgeries and other inconveniences.
Yoon's ruling party is also struggling with rising prices of
agricultural products and other goods and criticism of
Yoon's personnel management style.
“President Yoon has said a priority would be given to
stabilizing prices and livelihoods, but they weren't
stabilized, so I think that will be a big negative for the Yoon
government during the election,” Kim Daye, a 32-year-old
Seoul resident, said. (AP)
NSA
