Oh Se-hoon camp falls silent as exit polls show him trailing

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, the eighth floor of Daewang Building in Jongno-gu, Seoul — home to People Power Party Seoul mayoral candidate Oh Se-hoon's campaign — fell quiet. The chants of "Let's go!" that had filled the vote-counting room during the exit poll countdown gave way to silence. Campaign aides in the front row stared at the TV monitors, their faces hardening. Audible sighs came from the rows behind them. The numbers on screen told the story: Jeong Won-oh 53.5 percent, Oh Se-hoon 42.9 percent (JTBC); Jeong Won-oh 51.4 percent, Oh Se-hoon 46.0 percent (three broadcast networks combined). By the exit polls, Oh was trailing.

Seated in the front row were the campaign's top brass — overall headquarters chief Cho Eun-hee, joint campaign committee chairs Yoon Hee-sook, Park Su-min and Kim Jae-seop, Dobong-eul party chapter chair Kim Seon-dong, Gangdong-eul party chapter chair Lee Jae-young, and spokesperson Kim Byeong-min. When the exit poll results flashed on screen, Cho was seen covering her mouth with one hand.

About 10 minutes after the exit poll announcement, Lee Jae-young, the PPP's Gangdong-eul chapter chair, was the first to leave his front-row seat. By around 6:25 p.m., most of those in the front row had departed, leaving only Yoon Hee-sook, Kim Seon-dong and two or three others. A senior campaign official told a reporter, "Vote counting is still under way — we need to wait and see."

Members of the press who had been photographing the aides' reactions from the front also began to move away. As of 6:43 p.m. Wednesday, there was no word of Oh visiting the vote-counting center. The campaign had announced earlier in the afternoon that "the candidate's arrival time has not been determined."

Seoul is the most fiercely contested race of this election cycle. Oh, the incumbent, faced a challenge from Democratic Party of Korea candidate Jeong Won-oh, a three-term Seongdong-gu district chief. Polling on Wednesday ran from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., while early voting was held May 29 and 30, also from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Jeong had appealed to voters by framing the race as one to "give strength to the Lee Jae Myung government," while Oh urged supporters to "at least leave Seoul as the last stronghold."

Meanwhile, ballot shortages were reported at polling stations across parts of Seoul. The PPP's Seoul chapter said 12 stations had run out of ballots as of 6 p.m. Wednesday — including stations in Songpa-gu's Munjeong 1-dong, Munjeong 2-dong, Jamsil 2-dong, Jamsil 7-dong, Jamsil 4-dong, Garak 2-dong and Wirye-dong areas, two in Gangnam-gu's Cheongdam-dong and Gaepo 2-dong, one in Gwangjin-gu's Guui 3-dong, and one in Dongjak-gu's Noryangjin 1-dong. PPP Seoul chapter chair Bae Hyun-jin held a press conference at the National Assembly, condemning the shortages as evidence of a fundamental breakdown in election administration. "This is not a simple mistake — it is proof that the basic system of election management has collapsed, shaking the very foundation of democracy," she said.