South Korea's Ruling Democrats Sweep Local Elections in a Rebuke of Ousted President Yoon — but Lose Seoul

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party romped to a landslide in nationwide local elections held June 3, capturing the great majority of the country's top regional posts in what amounted to a sweeping endorsement of President Lee Jae-myung's first year in office — and a rebuke of the conservative camp tied to ousted former President Yoon Suk-yeol.

The Democratic Party of Korea won 12 of the 16 metropolitan and provincial chief-executive races, with official tallies giving it control of the overwhelming majority of governorships and major-city mayoralties. The party also dominated 14 National Assembly by-elections held the same day, tightening its grip on the levers of regional power across the country.

Yet the result was not a clean sweep. The main opposition People Power Party held onto the politically prized Seoul mayoralty, where the incumbent fended off the Democratic challenge, and the conservatives retained several strategic districts. The mixed outcome left both camps able to claim partial vindication, even as the national map tilted decisively toward the governing party.

Turnout reached 61.0 percent, about 11 percentage points higher than the previous local elections in 2022, with more than 44 million South Koreans eligible to choose among some 4,227 posts ranging from governors and district chiefs to local council members and education superintendents. Early voting had already hit a record for a local election, signaling unusually high engagement.

Analysts attributed the Democratic surge largely to lingering public anger over Yoon Suk-yeol, whose dramatic downfall reshaped South Korean politics, and to solid approval ratings for Lee, who took office after Yoon's removal. Yoon's brief, chaotic declaration of martial law in December 2024 triggered his impeachment and ultimately his ouster, paving the way for Lee to win a snap presidential election in 2025. The June 3 vote was the first nationwide test of the new political order, and conservatives had hoped to use it to slow the governing party's momentum. It was the ninth set of nationwide local elections since South Korea began directly electing local officials in 1995, and the offices at stake control sizable regional budgets and policy on everything from housing to schools. By pairing a sweep of those posts with gains in the simultaneous by-elections, the Democratic Party tightened its hold not only on the provinces but on the National Assembly, leaving the opposition searching for a path back to relevance. The opposition had cast the vote as a referendum on the Lee administration's first year; instead, voters delivered a verdict that strengthens the president's hand heading into the rest of his term, even as the loss of Seoul offered the conservatives a foothold from which to regroup.