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People Power Party leadership (left) celebrates after exit polls for the June 1 local elections are announced, while the Democratic Party (right) sit in protracted silence upon the announcement at their election coverage headquarters. (Yonhap News)

Candidates from the People Power Party (PPP), the party of South Korea’s new president Yoon Suk-yeol, have won the lion’s share of major mayoral and gubernatorial races in the country’s local elections on Wednesday. That outcome can be seen as a shot in the arm for Yoon, who has barely been in office for 20 days. Consecutive defeats in the presidential election and the local elections place the Democratic Party, Korea’s other major party, in jeopardy of forfeiting its political dominance.

Exit polls from Korea’s three terrestrial broadcasters gave the PPP a lead in 10 of Korea’s big cities and provinces, including Seoul, Incheon, and Gangwon Province, while the races in Gyeonggi Province and two other areas were too close to call. That suggested that the local elections would end in a big victory for the PPP.

Ballots counted by 1 am on Thursday showed that PPP candidate Kim Eun-hye and Democratic Party candidate Kim Dong-yeon were running neck and neck in the Gyeonggi Province gubernatorial election, which was one of the hottest races this election cycle. That was a complete reversal of what happened four years ago, when the Democratic Party swept 14 of 17 of the country’s main mayoral and gubernatorial races.

A conservative victory for the post of school superintendent in Gyeonggi Province, which has pioneered innovative education since 2009, is just part of a major reversal in the alignment of school administration, which has been basically dominated by progressives over the past eight years.

These local elections were very different in tenor from previous ones, which largely served as a midway evaluation of the party in power. Since the local elections were held so soon after the nail-biter of a presidential election in March, it appears that quite a few people who were disappointed by the outcome of the presidential election or disheartened by pugilistic party politics opted not to vote.

A poll on voting intentions that the National Election Commission commissioned three days before the election found that 71.5% of voters would definitely vote, but the actual turnout was much lower, at just 50.9%, according to a tentative tally.

Nevertheless, politicians from both parties need to accept the voting results with gravity and humility. The results are undeniably an expression of popular sentiment, whether or not everyone voted.

Now that the Yoon administration and the PPP have gained some momentum for governance, they’re likely to move ahead with hard-line conservative policies. But exit polls sorted by voters’ age and generation suggest that Koreans are willing to back the new administration for now, but will be watching to see if the administration lives up to their expectations.

That may mean that Yoon is in something of a honeymoon period, but it shouldn’t be taken as unconditional support for Yoon or approval of Han Dong-hoon’s consolidation of power over the Ministry of Justice, Yoon’s appointments of high-ranking figures, or his highly controversial decision to relocate the presidential office.

The Democratic Party has now suffered three electoral defeats in a row — in the by-elections on April 7, 2021, in the presidential election in March, and now in the June 1 local elections. Rather than lazily tying the outcome to the preceding presidential election, it would be more reasonable to regard this as the result of too many “own goals.”

After its defeat in the presidential election, the Democratic Party patted itself on the back for a good effort while neglecting to reflect on the outcome or institute reforms. The party’s decision to run candidates who weren’t suited for the post and the evident backbiting within the ranks was disappointing, even to party stalwarts.

There’s a strong likelihood that debate in the Democratic Party will intensify about who should be held responsible and what form reform should take. At any rate, party members should bear in mind that without a serious overhaul, the party may face even harsher punishment in the future.

Setting aside the outcome of the local elections, the fact that voter turnout was the second lowest in history (second only to 2002) presents numerous questions to the political world. Though this was the eighth time Korea has held local elections, they remained a chaotic cauldron of mudslinging. Any number of wild campaign pledges were made in a bid to win votes. Both parties need to think long and hard about whether such practices may reinforce voters’ antipathy for politics.

This was the first time that 18-year-olds in their final year of high school were given an opportunity to vote in local elections. Our hopes rest on how these new voters’ political participation will shape the future.

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]