Independent Kwon Seong-dong Leads Within Margin of Error... Unpredictable Gangneung, Gangwon-do

by Kim Dongpyo

Published 15 Apr.2020 23:06(KST)

On the 6th, candidates attending the debate hosted by the Gangneung City Election Commission at MBC Gangwon Yeongdong pledged to campaign vigorously. From the left, Kim Kyung-soo, Democratic Party candidate; Kwon Seong-dong, independent candidate; Hong Yoon-sik, United Future Party candidate; Choi Myung-hee, independent candidate.

As the vote counting for the 21st National Assembly election continues on the 15th, the Gangneung electoral district in Gangwon Province remains in a situation where predicting the final result is difficult.

With 42.7% of the votes counted, independent candidate Kwon Seong-dong is leading with 42.4% of the vote share, closely followed by Democratic Party candidate Kim Kyung-soo with 38.2%.

The difference between the two candidates is 2,195 votes.

Kwon, who was excluded from the United Future Party nomination and ran as an independent, appeared encouraged after exit polls from the three major broadcasters showed him leading Kim by 2.9 percentage points.

However, Kim also stated that he expects the outcome to be decided by votes from the most populous areas and intends to watch the counting results until the end.

Kwon secured more votes in rural areas such as Okgye-myeon, while Kim performed well in urban areas.

It is expected that the winner will only be known after opening the ballot boxes from populous areas like Gyodong and Seongdeok-dong.

Four years ago, Kwon, then a member of the Saenuri Party, won a third term by defeating Kim, who came in second, with a large margin of 20.01 percentage points, having secured 57.15% of the vote compared to Kim's 37.14%.