S. Korea Ruling Party Wins Local Voting : Politics: It gets 65% of the seats in legislatures and city councils in the first such elections in 30 years.

Despite a surprisingly low voter turnout and an unexpectedly strong showing by candidates without party affiliation, President Roh Tae Woo’s ruling party won a landslide victory in South Korea’s first provincial and city elections in 30 years, returns disclosed today.

Roh’s Democratic Liberal Party won majorities in 12 of the 15 legislative bodies being elected, including a historic victory here in the capital. Besides Seoul, city councils were elected in five other major cities, and legislatures were chosen in all nine provinces.

In the capital, a traditional stronghold of the opposition, the ruling party won 110 seats--83% of the 132 seats in the city council.

Although pollsters had predicted a turnout of more than 70% of the 28 million eligible voters, only 58.8% went to the polls, the Central Election Management Commission reported.

Roh’s party won 564 races, or 65%, of the 866 seats at stake, while two-time presidential candidate Kim Dae Jung’s opposition New Democratic Party won 165, or 19%. Candidates running without party affiliation--most of whom failed to win nominations from the parties to which they belong--captured 115 seats, or 13.3%.

An attempt by a splinter group, the Democratic Party, to establish itself as a second major opposition party fell flat. The party, which supported student protesters who called for the overthrow of Roh’s government in a series of demonstrations in May, won only 21 seats, or 2.4%.

A new radical group, the Masses Party, won only one seat.

Regional antipathies between the southeastern Kyongsang and the southwestern Cholla regions again overwhelmed the voters.

Roh’s ruling party, dominated by Kyongsang natives, swept northern and southern Kyongsang provinces and Pusan, South Korea’s second-largest city, while Kim’s party dominated Kim’s native southwestern region by monopolizing northern and southern Cholla provinces and Kwangju, capital of southern Cholla.

Cholla people resent discrimination they have faced in economic development of their region and in jobs, particularly in government and the military services, in which major posts are dominated by Kyongsang people. Kyongsang people often look down on Cholla people and intensely dislike Kim.

The results will enable Roh to proclaim an official end to a period of political turmoil that began April 26, when police beat to death a student protester. They also dealt a severe blow to Kim’s presidential hopes. He is the only avowed candidate for next year’s presidential election, and his party failed to hang on to even the full support of voters in the Cholla region, who constitute 28% of the nation’s population. Kim’s New Democratic Party won only 22% of votes cast.

Kim said this morning that the outcome showed “the middle class is becoming more conservative. They desire stability.”

The solid victory for the ruling party bolstered Kim’s rival, Kim Young Sam, who defected from the opposition and joined Roh’s party last year. Kim Young Sam, as executive chairman of Roh’s party, managed the 19-day campaign.

Roh, limited by the constitution to a single-five year term, will step down in February, 1993.

Prof. Cho Chang Hyun, director of the Center for Local Autonomy at Hanyang University, attributed Roh’s landslide victory to growing mistrust and disillusionment with politics among young voters.

Roh said Thursday as he cast his ballot: “I am very pleased to see this election since it is the last item in my June 29 (1987) declaration of democratic reforms to be carried out. It is deplorable that corruption and irregularities were reported in some areas, but compared with past elections, I think we made great progress in conducting a fair election.”