By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter


The largest opposition Grand National Party (GNP) swept all four National Assembly seats up for grabs in Wednesday’s by-elections.

The ruling Uri Party failed to win a single seat, repeating the crushing defeat of April’s by-elections, in which it lost all six seats up for grabs.

In April, the GNP took five Assembly seats out of the six, with the remaining one going to an independent lawmaker.

In Taegu, GNP chairwoman Park Geun-hye’s secretary Yoo Seong-min defeated Lee Gang-chul, a former senior presidential secretary for civic and social affairs and close confidant of President Roh Moo-hyun. The ruling camp’s efforts to overcome regional antagonism by succeeding a by-election in the traditional stronghold of the conservative GNP once again ended in a failure.

The GNP’s Yoon Doo-hwan snatched the Ulsan constituency, which was added to the list of electoral districts up for grabs after Rep. Cho Seung-soo of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) was deprived of his parliamentary seat on Sept. 29. The Supreme Court convicted Cho of illegal electioneering.

Former GNP legislator Hong Sa-duck, who ran for Puchon district, west of Seoul, as an independent candidate, competed against the GNP’s Chung Jin-sup, but Hong failed his bid. Voters in Puchon elected Lim Hae-kyu, also of the GNP.

Political analysts expected GNP chairwoman Park would be able to further secure her leadership and her position as one of the most promising presidential hopefuls of the party for the presidential election in December 2007 with the overwhelming victories, despite the surging popularity of Seoul Mayor Lee Myung-bak over his Chonggyechon restoration project.

As a result of the Uri Party rout, Rep. Moon Hee-sang, the party’s chairman, is likely to face a serious leadership crisis after the defeat.

Voter turnout in the by-elections Wednesday stood at 39.7 percent, higher than 33.6 percent of the previous by-elections last April. The percentage was lower than the 60.6 percent of the 2004 Assembly elections, the National Election Commission (NEC) said.

By region, the Ulsan district saw the highest turnout of 52.2 percent. The Taegu district came second in terms of turnout with 46.9 percent, followed by Kwangju in Kyonggi Province with 34.4 percent. Puchon, also in Kyonggi Province, showed the lowest rate with 29 percent.

As a result of Wednesday’s elections, the governing Uri Party has 144 seats, followed by the GNP with 127

in the 299-member unicameral legislature. The remaining are shared between the Democratic Party (DP) with 11 seats, the DLP with nine seats, three seats by the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) and five independent lawmakers.

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