South Korean ruling party wins vote held amid virus fears
Published:Thursday | April 16, 2020 | 1:58 PM
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s ruling liberal party secured a resounding victory in parliamentary elections that had the highest turnout in nearly three decades, despite the coronavirus forcing social distancing at polling places.
The ruling Democratic Party and a satellite party it created to win proportional representative seats combined to win 180 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly, election officials said Thursday.
Conservatives suffered their worst showing in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area in years.
The comfortable majority will likely embolden President Moon Jae-in’s government to pursue its key domestic and foreign objectives, such as reviving diplomacy with nuclear-armed rival North Korea, while it grapples with the pandemic that is shuttering businesses and threatening livelihoods.
Moon thanked the country’s “great people” for “giving strength to a government that’s fighting desperately to overcome a national crisis.”
More than 17 million South Koreans voted on Wednesday.
When combined with the 11.8 million early and mailed-in votes, turnout was 66.2%, the highest since 71.9% turnout in a 1992 general election, the National Election Commission said.
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