Jung leads Oh by wide margin with 20% of Seoul mayoral votes counted

Democratic Party of Korea candidate Jung Won-oh is leading incumbent Oh Se-hoon by a wide margin in the Seoul mayoral race, with more than 20 percent of ballots counted. Jung is also ahead in the three Gangnam-area districts — Gangnam, Seocho-gu and Songpa-gu — long considered a stronghold of the People Power Party.

With 20.02 percent of votes tallied as of 11:20 p.m. Wednesday, Jung had received 670,313 votes to Oh's 349,432, out of 1,053,784 ballots counted, according to the National Election Commission. That translates to vote shares of 64.12 percent for Jung and 33.42 percent for Oh. Dobong-gu had the highest count rate among Seoul's 25 districts at 40.63 percent, where Jung led with 61.62 percent to Oh's 36.34 percent. At that point, Jung was ahead in all 25 autonomous districts.

In the three Gangnam-area districts, Jung held 51.85 percent in Seocho-gu against Oh's 45.89 percent, and 49.37 percent in Gangnam-gu against Oh's 48.43 percent. In Songpa-gu, Jung led more decisively with 60.49 percent to Oh's 37.27 percent.

Earlier Wednesday, a joint exit poll by the KEP consortium (KBS, MBC and SBS) showed Jung at 51.4 percent and Oh at 46.0 percent. A separate JTBC projection survey put Jung at 53.5 percent and Oh at 42.9 percent.

Meanwhile, ballot shortages were reported at 17 polling stations across the greater Seoul area on Wednesday, the main voting day for the June 3 local elections. Election authorities extended voting hours until 10 p.m. for affected voters who had been unable to cast their ballots. The National Election Commission issued a public apology at 9 p.m. over the shortages.

People Power Party Seoul mayoral candidate Oh Se-hoon said Wednesday that vote counting should be suspended in areas affected by the ballot shortages until remedial measures had been fully carried out. "Counting must be halted until the prior measures for areas where voters were unable to vote due to the ballot shortage have been completed," Oh said.