Roh’s Ruling Party Wins Sweeping Victory in S. Korean Local Elections

Designed to implant democracy at the grass-roots level, South Korea’s first local elections in 30 years produced a sweeping victory for President Roh Tae Woo’s ruling party, final vote totals showed Wednesday.

The results also demonstrated that perennial opposition leader Kim Dae Jung failed to broaden the base of support for his Party for Peace and Democracy beyond his native Cholla region.

But the votes had hardly been counted before a ruling party leader said that the Democratic Liberal Party--an amalgam of the followers of Roh and two of his former opponents--remains as divided as ever over whom they will choose as the candidate to succeed Roh. He must step down in February, 1993, at the end of his constitutionally limited five years in office.

“I do not have great confidence that we can continue to operate without a split-up,” Rep. Nam Jae Hee, a member of the ruling party’s central executive committee, said.

Kim, who ran for president in 1971 and 1987, has already said he will run again. A ruling party split would give him his best chance, political analysts said.

Although candidates for rural county assemblies and urban ward assemblies were not permitted to run with political party endorsements, they were free to disclose party memberships. Analyses of the 4,304 winners showed that members of Roh’s party won 49.8% of the assembly seats at stake. Including pro-government winners with no party membership, 73.9% of the winners support the ruling party, officials of the party said.

Kim Dae Jung’s party members won only 18.2% of the seats and managed to get a majority in assemblies only in the two Cholla provinces. In Seoul, his party won only 22% of ward assembly seats at stake. Enmity between the Cholla region in the southwest and the Kyongsang region in the southeast has been a hallmark of Korean society for centuries and a plague in politics for at least the last 30 years.

Apathy, which had been reported widespread during the 18-day campaign, appeared stronger among the politicians than among the voters. The Tuesday elections, which the government made a national holiday to encourage voting, produced a 55% turnout. That was low for South Korea, where the 1987 presidential election, which Roh won against three rivals, drew 89.2% to the polls.

Of the 4,304 seats at stake, 615, or 14.3%, failed to attract more than one candidate. Still, the elections marked a historic turn away from the top-down politics that has prevailed throughout much of the country’s history. Since coup leaders in 1961 abolished local autonomy, every official in South Korea--down to village chiefs but excepting National Assembly members--had been appointed by the president.