South Korea's ruling party wins local elections by a landslide

South Korea's ruling Democratic Party won a landslide victory in local elections and parliamentary by-elections, building on its strong performance in the 2024 legislative elections, Yonhap News Agency reported Thursday.

President Lee Jae Myung's party secured 12 of the 16 key mayoral and gubernatorial posts contested, including Busan, while the main opposition People Power Party won four seats, including Seoul, according to final vote counts reported by Yonhap.

In the parliamentary by-elections, the Democratic Party won nine of the 14 seats contested, while the People Power Party secured four and an independent candidate took the remaining seat.

Thirteen of the 14 parliamentary seats were previously held by the ruling party. The Democratic Party controls the majority of the 300-member National Assembly.

The victory for the ruling party is widely expected to solidify the government's mandate to push forward with its reform measures.

Additionally, voters elected 16 education superintendents, 227 local government heads and around 4,000 local council members.

The elections were held one year after the Lee administration took office on June 4.

The turnout for the election marked the highest participation rate since the first nationwide local elections in 1995.

Local elections are held every four years, midway between National Assembly elections, in a schedule designed to prevent the two major electoral events from overlapping.