Turnout for local by-elections estimated at 24.62 pct

The voter turnout in Wednesday’s by-elections to pick Seoul City’s education chief and four local government heads was tentatively tallied at 24.62 percent, the election watchdog said, with the electoral outcome expected to serve as a gauge of public sentiment since the April general elections.

Out of the total of 8.6 million eligible voters, 2.1 million cast their ballots at 2,404 polling centers nationwide, the National Election Commission (NEC) said after voting stations closed at 8 p.m.

Up for grabs in Wednesday’s by-elections were five local administrative seats — the superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, as well as the heads of Busan’s Geumjeong District, Incheon’s Ganghwa County, and the Yeonggwang and Gokseong counties in South Jeolla Province.

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) is looking for a sweep in its traditional home ground — Busan’s Geumjeong District and Incheon’s Ganghwa County — to recover from the declining approval ratings for President Yoon Suk Yeol and the ruling party after its crushing defeat in the April 10 parliamentary elections.

With 35.44 percent of the ballots counted in Busan’s Geumjeong District, PPP candidate Yoon Il-hyun is leading the election with 58.85 percent of the vote against Kim Kyung-ji of the DP with 41.14 percent.

A loss on home turf for conservatives like Geumjeong could take a toll on the PPP and Han, who was elected as the party’s new chief in July just three months after he resigned from the position to take responsibility for the April defeat.

In Incheon’s Ganghwa County, Park Yong-cheol of the PPP led with 50.95 against the DP’s Han Yeon-hee with 42.89 percent.

With all ballots counted in Gokseong, Cho Sang-rae of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) secured the seat.

In Yeonggwang County, where 66.15 percent of the votes were counted, DP’s Chang Sae-il is likely to win against two minor parties.

Meanwhile, Jung Keun-sik, a progressive honorary professor of sociology at Seoul National University, is expected to become the education chief of Seoul, leading the race at 51.39 percent against Cho Jun-hyuk, a conservative former one-term lawmaker.

The by-election for Seoul’s education chief takes place after left-leaning predecessor Cho Hee-yeon, who had served since 2014, received a suspended prison sentence in August for abuse of power and was stripped of his post.

The final tally included the result for the two-day early voting last week, at 8.98 percent.

By region, the turnout for the vote for Seoul’s education chief came to 23.48 percent.

The turnout for the four other local administrative seats was estimated at 53.9 percent, which is higher than the 48.7 percent logged in Seoul’s Gansgseo Ward chief by-election last year and 50.9 percent in the 2022 local elections.

Observers say the election could put to test the leadership of PPP and DP chiefs, Han Dong-hoon and Lee Jae-myung, respectively, who are considered the next presidential candidates.

The outcome of the election could also shape the second half of President Yoon’s five-year term, as the opposition intensifies its political offensive against the PPP and the president, with some even raising the possibility of Yoon’s impeachment.