South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s party has won a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary elections held on Wednesday amid the coronavirus pandemic, BBC reported. Moon’s Democratic Party and its smaller allies won 180 seats in the 300-seat National Assembly.
The country held the elections despite once being second to only China in the number of Covid-19 infections. South Korea has since managed to flatten its transmission curve with aggressive testing, tracking of infected persons and observing social distancing. The elections were widely seen as a referendum on the government’s approach to the outbreak.
The number of seats won by Moon’s party is the biggest majority won in the National Assembly since South Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987, according to The Guardian. The voter turnout was 66.2%, higher than any parliamentary elections held since 1992. The National Assembly has 253 directly elected seats and 47 proportional representation seats.
Meanwhile, the opposition United Future Party won 103 seats, according to the country’s National Election Commission.
“In line with the strict command the people gave us we will put top priority on overcoming the national crisis of the coronavirus and economic declines,” former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who led the governing party’s campaign, said, according to Al Jazeera.
South Korea was among the first countries of the world to hold a national vote since the pandemic broke out in Wuhan, China, last year. Strict safety and social distancing measures were observed during the casting of votes.
Voters wearing masks were made to stand at least one metre apart, and move slowly between lines of duct tapes at polling stations. Before casting their vote they underwent temperature checks, sanitised their hands and were made to wear disposable plastic gloves. Those who failed the temperature check or were not wearing masks, were escorted to separate polling booths by election officials. The voting facilities were sanitised after use.
Meanwhile, about 13,000 people in self-quarantine because of the coronavirus were allowed to cast ballots immediately after the polls closed, provided they had no symptoms. South Korea has reported a total of 10,613 coronavirus cases and 229 deaths, as of now. The country continued to record a low number of new infections on Thursday, reporting 22 new cases.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, Moon’s prospects of winning were heavily undermined after South Korea recorded sluggish economic growth as his party struggled with allegations of power abuse and political scandals. Stalled talks with North Korea also dented the government’s popularity. However, the government’s relatively quick and effective handling of the outbreak bolstered Moon’s popularity before the elections.
Moon’s “coronavirus diplomacy”, including phone calls with other world leaders eager to learn from South Korea’s response, boosted public support for his administration, Minseon Ku, a politics scholar at Ohio State University, told The Guardian.
Globally, Covid-19 has infected over 20.62 lakh people and caused over 1.36 lakh deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
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