President Yoon Suk-yeol's ruling party won 12 of the 17 races for city mayors and provincial governors in local elections held in South Korea on Wednesday, extending Yoon's conservative power less than three months after he was elected president.
Yoon, who won the presidency by a razor-thin margin in March and was inaugurated just three weeks ago, scored a convincing victory on Wednesday.
Even though this week's elections were just at the local level, the results are being viewed as an early referendum on Yoon's leadership.
Oh Se-hoon, of Yoon's People Power Party, or P.P.P., won the election for mayor of the capital city of Seoul.
In addition, the P.P.P. won 11 other elections for mayors and governors, including the mayorship of Busan, the second-largest city in the country after Seoul.
Both the mayors of Busan and Seoul were incumbents elected in by-elections held last year.
Five races were won by the opposition Democratic Party, including three in Jeolla in the southwest, its traditional support base.
Its candidates also won governorships on the southern island of Jeju and in the populous province of Gyeonggi -do, which surrounds Seoul.
The outcomes of the election were a devastating defeat for the Democratic Party. In the most recent municipal elections, held four years ago, it won 14 of the same 17 races for mayors and provincial governors.
In 2020, it also secured an overwhelming victory in legislative elections. Voters grew unhappy with then-President Moon Jae-in and his party's failure to contain increasing housing prices, as well as #MeToo and corruption scandals involving Moon's supporters, and the political winds began to change against the Democratic Party last year.
In the March election, the same voter dissatisfaction helped propel Yoon to the top. However, the Democratic Party still holds a majority in the National Assembly, while Yoon's party does not.
During the campaign for this week's elections, the P.P.P. asked people to support Yoon's government so it could advance its program at a time when North Korea's recent nuclear tests on the Korean Peninsula emphasized the growing nuclear threat.
The Democratic Party marketed itself as the only party capable of "checking and balancing" Yoon's conservative administration.
Pre-election polls indicated a significant victory for P.P.P. candidates in this week's elections, which followed the presidential election and were viewed as an extension of it.
