SKorean ruling party reeling from election whitewash
South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun emerged weakened and his ruling party was in disarray after a crushing defeat to conservatives in local elections.
Roh's Uri Party lost 15 out of 16 key contests, leaving the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) in control of major cities and provinces across the country.
"They were creamed. Worse than their worst nightmare," said analyst Peter Beck, director of the Seoul office of the non-governmental organization International Crisis Group.
The poll is seen as a referendum on the performance of Roh, elected to office on a Uri Party ticket in 2002, and an early indicator ahead of presidential polls next year.
Most analysts said that the election was more of a defeat for the Uri Party rather than a sweeping endorsement of the conservative GNP, which won all key posts in Seoul and surrounding areas, where the combined population accounts for nearly half of the country's 47 million people.
Roh, a former human-rights lawyer elected on a reformist platform, has alienated his own supporters by soft-pedaling on social issues while losing mainstream support because of economic problems.
"Progressives felt betrayed because the government did not execute its promises of socio-economic reform while ordinary people were upset by economic polarization," said Kim Young-Myung, politics professor at Hallym University.
Uri Party chairman Chung Dong-Young, whose hopes to run for president next year suffered a setback, resigned to take responsibility for the defeat, which experts said left Roh looking like a political lame duck for the last 18 months of his term.
Roh said he accepted the voters' reprimand but was already looking further down the road.
"I take this as a reflection of people's thinking," he said. "It is time to have wisdom to work from a long-term perspective and with patience."
For some experts the defeat was an unambiguous repudiation of Roh and his party and an early taste of the popular mood ahead of the December 2007 presidential election.
"The elections will also set the stage for the presidential election in December 2007," said Lee Nae-Young of the Korea University.
The Uri Party won only one major race, the governorship of North Jeolla, the home province of its chairman Chung.
The Korea Times said the result left opposition leader Park Guen-Hye in a strong position to launch her bid to become South Korea's first woman president.
In the polls, the GNP benefited from a sympathy vote for Park, the daughter of South Korea's former military ruler Park Chung-Hee. She was slashed across the face on May 20 by an ex-convict while out campaigning for the party candidate in the race for Seoul mayor.
"It is not too much to say that the GNP captured an advantageous position in the preparation for the coming presidential election through victory in the local elections," the paper said.
But Beck and other analysts said the outcome of the vote would have little impact on foreign policy, notably North Korea where Roh's softline has upset some conservatives.
"But the GNP has offered no alternative to Roh's reconciliation policy with the North," he said.
The Uri Party, formed to back Roh in 2003, remains the major party in the National Assembly with 142 of the 299 seats against 123 for the GNP.
In a statement, the opposition party called on Uri to get over its defeat and return to state business.
"We want the Uri Party to come back from the political turmoil quickly and discuss state affairs with us," it said.
AFP
