The Democratic Party of Korea, the ruling party, swept a commanding majority of metropolitan governorships in Wednesday's local elections. Final vote counts Thursday showed the Democratic Party winning 12 of 16 mayoral and gubernatorial races nationwide, while the People Power Party held on to four. The previous 5-to-12 split in favor of the PPP reversed to 12-to-4 in the Democratic Party's favor — a dramatic turnaround in four years. On the surface, voters appeared to shift the center of gravity in local government toward the Democratic Party, lending momentum to the Lee Jae Myung administration as it marks its first year in office. Yet the PPP won Seoul, where the Democratic Party had been widely expected to cruise to victory, and no upsets materialized in Daegu or South Gyeongsang Province, which had been cited as bellwethers for the scale of a Democratic sweep. In the National Assembly by-election in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, PPP candidate Yoo Eui-dong — considered the longest of long shots — defeated Democratic Party candidate Kim Yong-nam and Cho Guk Innovation Party candidate Cho Guk. In Busan's Buk-gu A district, independent candidate Han Dong-hoon defeated Democratic Party candidate Ha Jung-woo.
The ruling party rode a strong wave of sentiment for governmental stability, yet lost or struggled in the most consequential battlegrounds, including Seoul. The PPP benefited from a late-stage rally among conservative voters but could not escape an overall drubbing. The National Election Commission's shoddy management of the vote also exposed serious problems: in Seoul alone, at least 14 polling stations ran out of ballots and were forced to suspend voting — an unprecedented breakdown. In that sense, it is fair to say this was an election with no winners, only the wounded.
Above all, responsibility for the election's failure to become a genuine contest over the nation's future and regional development rests squarely with the leadership of both parties. The Democratic Party under Jung Chung-rae and the PPP under Jang Dong-hyeok stumbled through the candidate nomination process amid relentless controversy. Party leaders fixated on political slogans — "rooting out insurrection" on one side, "blocking the withdrawal of indictments" on the other — rather than governing visions. Within the Democratic Party, tensions flared between factions loyal to former President Moon Jae-in and those aligned with Lee Jae Myung, as well as between the traditional base and newer supporters. Inside the PPP, feuding between pro-Yoon and pro-Han factions, and between the party establishment and its critics, dragged on without resolution. Critics within both parties charged that their leaders were more consumed by the next intraparty leadership race than by the local elections themselves. Missing entirely were visions and policies on how to spread the gains of a buoyant stock market, rising exports and economic growth to the regions; where and how to build infrastructure for future industries such as semiconductors, AI and advanced manufacturing; and how to ease the concentration of resources in the greater Seoul area and achieve balanced national development.
The ruling and opposition parties must take seriously the public sentiment this election has laid bare. Voters checked the ruling party's dominance and punished the conservative opposition's regression. They also issued a clear mandate: break from entrenched forces and stale political discourse, innovate, and govern cooperatively. The Democratic Party must not only exercise its reclaimed local power responsibly but also work in concert with opposition-led local governments. The PPP, for its part, must put its internal divisions and backward-looking controversies behind it and focus solely on the national interest in its dealings with the central government.
