Conservatives in South Korea urged voters to help them stop an “immoral and shameless” left from taking a majority in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the eve of midterm elections preceded by a chaotic campaign season featuring stabbings, corruption allegations, and alleged North Korean interference.
The People Power Party (PPP), the ruling party of conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol, is facing stiff competition from the main opposition party, the leftist Democratic Party, despite its leader Lee Jae-myung facing growing allegations of corruption and an internal mutiny. Opposition to Lee within the party is so strong that National Assembly lawmakers defected from the party in the immediate aftermath of Lee getting stabbed during a public event in January.
While the Democratic Party has struggled to contain its internal turmoil, it has accused Yoon of “incompetence” as domestic crises in South Korea have grown during his tenure, most prominently the trainee doctors’ strike that has paralyzed emergency rooms nationwide. Yoon held a meeting with the leader of the doctors’ strike on April 4 to discuss terms for their return to work but has yet to restore normalcy to the nation’s healthcare system.
Yoon is also facing his own corruption scandal: an allegation that First Lady Kim Keon Hee improperly accepted a Dior bag worth upwards of $2,000 as a gift. Yoon has defended his wife, asserting that the gift was a “regrettable” set-up’ the PPP has focused instead of Lee’s allegations of corruption, which had him in court the day before Koreans go to the polls.
At stake on Wednesday are 300 seats in the National Assembly. According to the South Korean news agency Yonhap, 46 seats are in districts that use a proportional representation system, meaning voters select a party rather than a person. The other 254, however, are direct elections where voters choose the person they wish to see in that seat. A PPP majority could allow Yoon to further both his domestic agenda, which prioritizes increasing the record-low birth rate and attracting foreign investment, as well as pushing South Korea’s foreign policy closer to America and, controversially, Japan to counter communist influence in the region.
Yoon would struggle to get anything through the National Assembly if the Democratic Party obtains a majority, however, for the duration of his single term, scheduled to end in 2027.
South Korea’s ruling People Power Party (PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon (R) joins hands with Seoul-based American physician John Linton (L), Korean name Ihn Yohan, who is in charge of the PPP’s innovation committee, during their campaign event on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Seoul on April 9, 2024. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)
Polls prior to the election indicated a close race with a slight edge for the PPP, though Yonhap reported on Tuesday that the most recent polls before Wednesday showed a shift towards the Democrats.
“Analysts say the election is likely to strongly resemble the 2022 presidential race in terms of closeness,” the Japan Times recalled on Tuesday, “when Yoon narrowly defeated his archrival, current DP leader Lee Jae-myung, by a razor-thin margin of just 0.73% — the slimmest in the history of South Korean presidential elections.”
The PPP is campaigning largely on Lee’s unpopularity. Lee is currently facing charges of bribery, improper use of power, and other corrupt acts stemming from a relationship he allegedly maintained with real estate developers during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam. Lee responded to the allegations in September with a short-lived hunger strike that did little to improve his public approval ratings.
On Tuesday, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon joked that Lee cried “crocodile tears” at the courthouse shortly before the election and warned that South Korea would fall “into a state of decline” with the Democratic Party in power.
“Please give us a minimum number of seats that we can use to keep this immoral and shameless opposition in check,” Han urged.
Lee, attending a court hearing on his corruption charges on Tuesday, attempted to make the election about Yoon, accusing the president of using the judiciary to persecute the opposition.
“Please vote to prevent the political force that has betrayed the people from attaining a parliamentary majority,” Lee asked voters, adding, “Unable to curb prices as it is supposed to, the Yoon Suk Yeol government is only attempting to strike down political enemies and opposition forces.”
The Democratic Party accused the PPP of creating a “dictatorship run by prosecutors,” an allusion to Yoon’s prior career.
Polling does not indicate that Lee’s hunger strike, or the shocking assassination attempt against him in January, made a significant difference in voting intentions. The incident occurred during an event to begin the construction of a new airport in Busan; a man wearing a paper crown reading “I’m Lee Jae-myung” approached the party leader and stabbed him in the neck. Lee made a full recovery after a brief hospitalization.
Supporters raise their phone torches during a campaign rally for South Korea’s ruling People Power Party (PPP), on the eve of the parliamentary elections in Seoul on April 9, 2024. (ANTHONY WALLACE/AFP via Getty Images)
The day he was discharged, however, three Democratic Party National Assembly members – Reps. Cho Eung-cheon, Kim Jong-min, and Lee Won-wook – announced their departure from what they called the “Lee Jae-myung regime” and the creation of a coalition called “Principle and Common Sense.”
“Principle and Common Sense” does not appear to have made a significant dent in the popularity of either main party. The two are facing a surprisingly strong challenge from a new third party, however: “Rebuilding Korea,” led by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk. The Korea JoongAng Daily reported that polling in districts with proportional representation were showing Rebuilding Korea leading both the PPP and the Democrats.
“Cho was a rising political star under former President Moon Jae-in until the state prosecution service in 2019, then led by Yoon,” JoongAng observed this weekend, “launched an investigation into allegations that he and his wife had falsified their children’s academic credentials to give them a leg up in university admissions. Both were later convicted.”
Cho is campaigning aggressively against the PPP and Yoon personally, promising to join forces with the Democratic Party to investigate both Yoon and his wife.
“If the Democratic Party and the Rebuilding Korea Party get 200 seats between them, we’ll be able to investigate the stock manipulation crimes [at Deutsch Motors] perpetrated by Kim Keon-hee and her mother Choi Eun-sun. If we [the opposition] can claim 200 seats, everybody will see Kim Keon-hee in the dock,” Cho proclaimed on Monday.
