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SKorea ruling party crushed in by-elections
(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-04-30 10:33 SEOUL -- South Korea's conservative ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in by-elections seen as the first electoral test of the government, which took office 14 months ago, according the latest results. The Grand National Party (GNP) of President Lee Myung-Bak lost all five parliamentary seats contested Wednesday to independent or opposition candidates, the National Election Commission said.
Independents won three seats, the liberal main opposition Democratic Party took the most hotly contested seat at Bupyeong west of Seoul and a candidate from a minority progressive party picked up one. The GNP had aimed to win three of the five seats in hopes of boosting the government's efforts to reform the public sector and revive the economy.
His popularity waned last summer after a decision to resume US beef imports, falling to 22 percent last June. Lee's approval rating was 39 percent in one opinion poll released April 21. "We'll humbly accept the will of the people displayed in the election result," the GNP said in a statement. "We'll look back upon what was wrong with us. Our party will regard the defeat as an encouragement from the public and further redouble efforts to revitalise the economy." The defeat could further split the party's two main factions, one aligned with Lee and the other with former chairwoman Park Geun-Hye. An independent aligned with Park beat the GNP candidate by more than 10 percentage points in the southeastern district of Gyeongju. Before the by-elections the GNP held 170 of the 299 National Assembly seats compared to 83 for the Democratic Party. |
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