DPK Candidate Wins Landslide Election in Seoul
The loss of this election in Seoul is supposedly not a good sign for upcoming elections for the PPP which currently holds the Korean Presidency:
Jin Gyo-hoon, center, main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) candidate for Gangseo District mayor, speaks after his victory was declared at his campaign office in western Seoul, Wednesday. At right is DPK floor leader Rep. Hong Ihk-pyo. Joint press corps
Main opposition Democratic Party of Korea candidate (DPK) Jin Gyo-hoon clinched a landslide victory in a by-election to elect the mayor of Gangseo District in western Seoul, Thursday, which was widely seen as a bellwether of the 2024 general elections.
The election drew considerable attention, as it was the last chance to gauge public sentiment before the general elections slated for April 10. The rival parties sent seasoned politicians to support the candidates, considering the election’s impact in the six-month race for seats in the National Assembly, and Wednesday’s result will likely boost the DPK’s crusade against the Yoon Suk Yeol administration and the ruling People Power Party (PPP).
According to the National Election Commission, Jin gained 56.52 percent of the votes, outpacing PPP candidate Kim Tae-woo with 39.37 percent.
Jin will immediately begin the remaining term of approximately three years as the district mayor.
Korea Times
You can read more at the link.
Of course, with Yoon’s miserable 21% approval rate – the lowest approval rate of any free world country, even lower than Japan’s Kishida, what do you expect with the result?
Yoon’s party is now basically done. He has pissed off so many Koreans, he’ll be lucky if he’s not impeached and imprisoned (this will come later when he’s officially out of power).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifLqzLEB3E0
As a resident of the district in question, what I found unusual was for an election with much meaning, the PPP candidate was nowhere to be found.
The DPK candidate, I saw three times campaigning in our neighborhood three times, the DPP candidate zero times.
Even if the candidate doesn’t show up, they will send armies of campaign workers with placards, but the PPP campaign workers were outnumbered by the DPK workers.
It was as if they knew they were going to lose, but didn’t want to say it and put in minimal effort.
Interestingly, there are rumblings in the PPP, that the candidate in question, who was found guilty by the Supreme Court and was pardoned by Yoon so that he could run in the election, wasn’t the right candidate and that Yoon is to blame for this disaster.