Chinanews, April 8th, according to comprehensive Korean media reports, South Korea's local re-election by-elections held on the 7th ended in a disastrous defeat by the ruling party.
The National Power Party, the largest opposition party, has regained the posts of mayors of Seoul and Busan. The ruling party, which has won four consecutive national elections in the past five years, is seeking a plan to win the general election again next year, lighting up a red light.
As the by-elections for local councillors and local government leaders who were regarded as the outpost in the next general election in South Korea ended, the whistle of the general election contest sounded at the same time.
According to news from South Korea’s Central Election Management Commission on the 8th, the voting for the Seoul mayor by-election has been completed. The National Forces candidate Oh Se-hoon received 57.5% of the votes, 18.32 percentage points ahead of the ruling party’s Democratic Party candidate Park Young-sun.
Goh Se-hoon won overwhelming victories in all of the 25 autonomous regions in Seoul, and the vote rate in Gangnam-gu (73.54%) is as much as three times that of Park Young-sun.
In the Mayor of Busan by-election, the National Forces Party candidate Park Hyung-gil won 62.67% of the votes, almost twice that of the Democratic Party candidate Kim Young-chun (34.42%).
According to the report, although the 7th is not a public holiday, the turnout rates in Seoul and Busan are still as high as 58.2% and 52.7%, respectively.
This is the first time that the voter turnout rate of a wide-area group re-election by-election has exceeded 50%.
The voter turnout of the three Gangnam districts (Seocho, Gangnam, and Songpa) in Seoul, where conservatives gather, is more than 60%.
The analysis believes that in the case of the by-election caused by the former mayor of the Democratic Party, the failure of the government's real estate policy and the land speculation scandal of the South Korean Land and Housing Corporation have turned people's hearts.
In addition, this time the opposition party also won overwhelming victories in other electoral districts. The positions of the mayor of Ulsan’s Nam-gu were all won by the National Forces candidates.
Korean media analysis pointed out that the KMT got rid of the crisis of impeachment by this election and became the backbone of the reorganization of the opposition party.
The party has reached a consensus on the need to move closer to the "middle pragmatic line," and it is expected that calls for reform will continue.
Some analysts also believe that with the overwhelming victory of the Kuomintang, the largest opposition party, its "political trial theory" will undoubtedly profoundly change the power structure of the ruling and opposition parties. The political situation of the so-called "post-by-election era" will remain unchanged. Continue until the eve of the next general election.