'Even if "Less Than Half," We Will Win'... Opposition Appeals for Support in Final Stages of Local Elections

6 Metropolitan Areas, Over 8 Seoul District Mayors Expected
Hotspots Gathered One Day Before Election
Final Campaign Rally at Yongsan Office at 8 O'clock

Yoon Ho-jung, the Standing Election Committee Chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, is attending the Central Election Committee meeting held at the National Assembly on the 31st and delivering a speech. Photo by Yoon Dong-ju doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] On the 31st, one day before the local elections, the Democratic Party of Korea will conclude its campaign tour in Seoul. They are putting all their efforts into making a final appeal for support, with a strategy to hold onto as many of the 25 district mayors in Seoul as possible. Given the solid support for People Power Party candidate Oh Se-hoon, the Democratic Party has judged that the previous "24 to 1" dominance in district mayor positions has already been broken and is now aiming to retain about half.

At 8 p.m. that day, the Democratic Party leadership, including co-chairpersons Park Ji-hyun and Yoon Ho-jung, along with key lawmakers, will gather in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, where the presidential office building is located. They plan to wrap up their campaign by holding a support rally for Seoul mayoral candidate Song Young-gil.

The gathering in Seoul implies a determination to hold onto the district mayor positions as much as possible. As the prospects for metropolitan government heads have been weaker than expected, they consider protecting district mayor seats symbolically important. Kim Min-seok, co-head of the Democratic Party’s joint campaign headquarters, said at the National Assembly when asked about the Seoul district mayor election outlook, "We are looking at winning from more than one-third up to half," adding, "It depends on the situation, but winning half will not be easy."

In the 2018 local elections, the Democratic Party achieved a landslide victory by winning 24 districts, but this time it is predicted they will only be able to hold about 8 to 12 districts. Although 15 incumbent district mayors are running, the "Yoon Suk-yeol government premium" and the strong support for candidate Oh are expected to have a significant impact.

Kim also expressed concerns about the metropolitan government head races. On CBS Radio that day, he said, "There have been internal and external variables since the election started, so if we can definitely win four places and five to six places including those, it would be a very good performance." This is a somewhat pessimistic view compared to ten days before the election when four metropolitan areas (Gwangju, Jeonnam, Jeonbuk, Jeju) were considered strongholds and four others (Gyeonggi, Incheon, Daejeon, Sejong) were battlegrounds.

Floor leader Park Hong-geun will head to Dobong, Gangbuk, Seongbuk, and Jungnang districts, which are considered competitive areas within Seoul, to hold support rallies. Co-chairpersons Yoon and Park will go to Sejong City, where the support rates are close, and then join the group in Seoul.

However, Lee Jae-myung, the overall campaign chairperson running in the Incheon Gyeyang-eul by-election, plans to tour the Incheon area from 7 a.m. until after 10 p.m. that day to appeal for support.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.