Final count confirms Oh’s Seoul victory

The vote count for South Korea’s June 3 local elections, delayed by an unprecedented ballot shortage, was completed Friday, confirming the reelection of Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, the People Power Party candidate.

According to the National Election Commission, the final count, including the last two ballot boxes from Polling Station No. 2 in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa District, gave Oh 2,575,819 votes, or 49.22% of the total. Democratic Party of Korea candidate Jeong Won-o received 2,515,560 votes, or 48.07%. Oh won by 60,259 votes.

Oh’s victory had already been assured on Thursday because the lead over his nearest rival exceeded the number of votes remaining to be counted. With 99.93% of ballots counted, Oh had secured 2,572,443 votes, or 49.19%, compared with 2,514,832 votes, or 48.09%, for Jeong. The final two ballot boxes added 3,376 votes to Oh’s total and 728 to Jeong’s.

The completed tally also altered the distribution of proportional representation seats in the Seoul Metropolitan Council. The council said Friday that Wi Seong-chan, the People Power Party’s eighth-ranked proportional representation candidate, will take a seat instead of Han Gi-seong, the Democratic Party of Korea’s eighth-ranked candidate. The council had announced a day earlier that the Democratic Party of Korea won eight proportional representation seats and the People Power Party seven, but revised the allocation after the final count was completed.


한재희기자 hee@donga.com