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South Korea’s leftist ruling party won the results of the parliamentary elections on Thursday, buoyed by President Moon Jae-in’s successes in containing the coronavirus.
Moon’s Democratic Party and its allies took 180 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, while the opposition United Future Party (UFP) it won 103, according to the National Electoral Commission. South Korea’s voting system combines direct and proportional votes.
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Turnout was 66.2 percent, higher than any parliamentary election since 1992.
“In line with the strict command that the people gave us, we will give top priority to overcoming the national coronavirus crisis and economic downturns,” said former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who led the ruling party’s campaign, in a televised speech.
Just a few months ago, scandals over abuse of power and sluggish economic growth were undermining the president, and critics called his moderate approach to North Korea unrealistic, despite Pyongyang abandoning its nuclear missile test moratoriums and ballistic.
But the relatively quick and effective handling of the epidemic by the South increased Moon’s approval ratings before the elections, which were largely seen as a referendum on his performance.
Reform push
His so-called “coronavirus diplomacy,” like recent publicity in his bilateral phone calls with at least 20 state leaders about the epidemic response, increased Koreans’ confidence in his administration, said Minseon Ku, a policy scholar at State University from Ohio in the United States. state
Ku added that the leader has been successfully framing the pandemic as an “opportunity for South Korea to restructure its economy, capitalizing on industries like AI and biopharmaceutical” and this “along with global recognition of South Korea” for its handling. of the outbreak sat well with voters
South Korea was one of the first countries to hold national elections during the pandemic, and citizens were still asked to maintain social distance, wear protective masks, wash their hands with disinfectant, and put on plastic gloves.
Officials of the National Electoral Commission count the ballots of the parliamentary elections on Wednesday [Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters] [Reuters]
At each of the 14,000 polling stations, voters had their temperatures checked before they were allowed to enter. Those with a fever cast their votes in separate booths that are disinfected after each user.
An absolute majority should help Moon move forward with his reform agenda in his later years in office.
“It should give your administration a bigger boost,” said Andrew Yeo, a professor of politics at the Catholic University of America.
Meanwhile, former UFP Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and former parliamentary leader Na Kyung-won were not re-elected.
The conservative party had “failed to rebrand” itself after the removal of former President Park Geun-hye, who “limited the limit of support for older generations and central regions of support,” Ji Yeon Hong, professor of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, he told the AFP news agency.
Foreign policy questions
However, the UFP performed very well in Daegu, the city at the heart of the South Korean coronavirus outbreak and the surrounding North Gyeongsang province. Democrats, meanwhile, won more than 80 percent of the seats in Seoul.
Lee Nak-yon, a former prime minister and ruling Democratic Party candidate for parliament, watches as exit polls come in. The party was overwhelmingly returned to power [Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters]
While the pandemic has diverted public attention from opposition criticism, it would be “dangerous” if Moon interprets the elections as “vindicating foreign policies that don’t work,” said Leif-Eric Easley, a professor at Ewha University in Seoul.
“Seoul’s engagement with Pyongyang has faced diplomatic insults and missile tests. China’s silver has yielded little benefit,” he said.
“Talking hard with Japan has not furthered South Korea’s interests. And progressives want to accelerate military command reforms and resist cost-sharing pressures in Seoul’s alliance with Washington.”
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