Apr 8, 2021
President Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party was handed its worst defeat in five years in mayoral elections in South Korea’s two biggest cities, a troubling sign for his progressive bloc just 11 months before a presidential vote.
Final results released Thursday showed conservative Oh Se-hoon scored a landslide victory in the race in Seoul over ruling party candidate Park Young-sun, a former minister for startups. Oh picked up 57.5% of the vote to 39.2% for Park. In Busan, Park Hyung-jun of the conservative People Power Party defeated Kim Young-choon from Moon’s ruling party by 62.7% to 34.4%, data from the National Election Commission showed.