PPP's Na Kyung-won ahead of DP's Ryu Sam-young in battleground Dongjak-B District

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) candidate Na Kyung-won led a tight race for Seoul's Dongjak-B District against Ryu Sam-young of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) as of Wednesday evening.

Democratic Party candidate Ryu Sam-young, left, and People Power Party candidate Na Kyung-won, both running for Seoul's Dongjak-B constituency, speak at election campaign events on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The conservative People Power Party (PPP) candidate Na Kyung-won led a tight race for Seoul's Dongjak-B District against Ryu Sam-young of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) as of Wednesday evening.

Na is leading by 4.55 percentage points with 52.27 percent of votes counted as of 10 p.m. Wednesday. Ryu has received 47.72 percent, with the vote count standing at 14.35 percent.

The district, a key battleground in the so-called Han River belt consisting of 11 electoral districts, was the most visited constituency in Seoul by DP leader Lee Jae-myung during the election campaign period.

The final voter turnout in Dongjak District was 72.2 percent, the highest among the capital's 25 districts, according to the National Election Commission.

Na is a former four-term lawmaker of the PPP.

Ryu, a former police superintendent, is new to the political scene. He is known for organizing a meeting with senior police officers protesting the Interior Ministry’s plan to establish a police bureau under the ministry in 2022. Ryu stepped down from his position in July last year following his three-month suspension for holding the meeting.

An exit poll jointly conducted by the three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS projected that Ryu would win with 52.3 percent to Na’s 47.7 percent.

The poll surveyed 359,750 voters at 1,980 polling stations nationwide while voting was underway. It has a 95-percent confidence interval and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 to 7.4 percentage points.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]