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Park’s ruling party wins landslide victory despite scandal

April 29, 2015

This combined photo shows (from L to R) the four winners of the parliamentary by-elections on April 29, 2015: independent candidate Chun Jung-bae in Gwangju, ruling Sanuri Party candidate Shin Sang-jin in Seongnam, ruling Sanuri Party candidate Oh Shin-hwan in Seoul and ruling Sanuri Party candidate Ahn Sang-soo in Incheon. (Yonhap)

SEOUL, April 29 (Yonhap) — The ruling Saenuri Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary by-elections Wednesday despite a bribery scandal involving some key aides to President Park Geun-hye.

The ruling party claimed three of the four electoral districts up for grabs including the closely-contested Kwanak constituency in southern Seoul, according to the results of the ballot count by the National Election Commission (NEC).

Former Justice Minister Chun Jung-bae took the seat in the traditionally left-leaning southwestern city of Gwangju in his run as an independent candidate in the mid-term elections seen as a bellwether for next year’s general elections.

Chun bolted from the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).

It was a complete defeat for NPAD, which fielded candidates for all the four constituencies.

The ruling party now enjoys a comfortable majority at the 300-member National Assembly with 160 seats.

The crushing defeat for NPAD came despite the ruling party’s alleged involvement in the bribery scandal, which led to the resignation of Lee Wan-koo as prime minister earlier this week.

Amid suspicions of taking 30 million won (US$27,000) from late businessman Sung Wan-jong, Park accepted Lee’s resignation on Monday, vowing to fight corruption and to pursue a fresh political reform.

Before taking his own life earlier this month, Sung claimed in a memo and a media interview that he gave up billions of won to Lee and eight politicians, including Park’s former and incumbent chiefs of staff.

The opposition defeat also came as two high-profile party defectors split opposition votes.

The former justice minister and the former presidential candidate, Chung Dong-young, left NPAD earlier this year to run for the parliamentary by-elections.

Saenuri Party’s Oh Shin-hawn won the Kwanak district with 43.9 percent of the votes over independent Chung with 20.2 percent and the NPAD candidate’s 34.2 percent, according to the election watchdog.

Confirming his party’s victorious recults, Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung said “We really appreciate your support for the ruling party and the Park Geun-hye government in an economically and socially difficult situation.”

“I take this as the people’s stern demand to revive the economy and well prepare for the future of the state,” Kim said.

The first election victory since Kim took the leadership of the ruling party last year is expected to help cement his presidential ambitions.

The election triumph will also bolster the Park administration’s push to revive the stagnant economy and fight corruption.

“The sentiment shown by Gwangju citizens in this election would bring resurrection of a political faction based in the Jeolla provinces and changes to the opposition bloc and would eventually lead to power transition,” said Chun.

With this crushing defeat, the main opposition party may be thrust into an internal disarray with the leadership of Chairman Moon Jae-in put into question.

“We feel very sorry that we failed to properly deliver people’s warning to the Park administration’s corruption and failure in economic and personnel affairs,” NPAD spokeswoman Yoo Eun-hae said. “NPAD will deeply look back on what people want from our party … and work harder to safeguard the lives of people.”

Voter turnout came to 36 percent for the latest elections, according to the NEC, up 3.1 percent from the by-elections in 2014.