Fierce race in Gangseo signals tone for next year’s election

The by-election for the head of Seoul's Gangseo District Office unfolded Wednesday, as rival parties vied for a hotly contested spot seen as a means to gauge voter sentiment in the metropolitan area with just six months to ㅅ general elections.

A pedestrian watches CCTV footage monitoring early voting ballot boxes for the Gangseo District office head shown around the clock at the entrance to the Seoul City Election Commission in Jongno District, central Seoul, Wednesday morning, the day of the by-election. Polling booths were open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. to all eligible voters on this day. [YONHAP]

The by-election for the head of Seoul's Gangseo District Office unfolded Wednesday, as rival parties vied for a hotly contested spot seen as a means to gauge voter sentiment in the metropolitan area with just six months to next year's general elections.

There were six candidates, though the competition was essentially a two-way race between Kim Tae-woo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP), the former Gangseo District chief, and Jin Kyo-hoon of the liberal Democratic Party (DP), a former National Police Agency deputy commissioner general.

Eligible voters in Gangseo District cast their ballots at 131 polling stations between 6 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.

According to the National Election Commission (NEC), voter turnout was tallied at 43.8 percent of 500,603 eligible voters in the district as of 6 p.m. This includes the results of the two-day early voting.

Early voting over Friday and Saturday saw a record turnout of 22.64 percent, the highest for the country's by-elections and local elections. However, turnout on the actual by-election day in Gangseo was somewhat lower than initial expectations based on the strong early voting figures.

While Gangseo in western Seoul is traditionally a liberal stronghold, the rival parties claimed that the high early voting turnout was advantageous to their own candidates.

Though contesting over a relatively obscure Seoul district office chief position, the PPP and DP have been throwing their full force into campaign efforts in Gangseo, as they test the waters in the metropolitan area, the biggest battleground for the April 2023 parliamentary elections.

The rival parties have been keen on producing the next Gangseo chief, as winning the by-election would help solidify the current leadership. In turn, the losing party's leadership may face more scrutiny over their ability to lead the party to a general election victory in the April 2023 parliamentary elections.

The by-election comes as Kim Tae-woo, who was elected as Gangseo District chief in local government elections in June 2022, was removed from office in May after the Supreme Court handed him a suspended prison sentence on charges of leaking official secrets gained while working for a special inspection team under the previous Moon Jae-in Blue House.

Kim, a former prosecution investigator, was convicted of leaking classified secrets to the media while he was assigned to a special investigative team under the chief presidential secretary for civil affairs from December 2018 to February 2019. Kim has called himself a whistle-blower, working for the public good.

President Yoon Suk Yeol granted a presidential pardon for Kim in August as a part of his Liberation Day amnesty, reinstating Kim's right to run for office.

Both PPP chief Kim Gi-hyeon and DP head Lee Jae-myung, who was released from the hospital Monday while still recovering from deteriorated health from a hunger strike, campaigned ferociously alongside their party's candidates ahead of the by-election day.

On Wednesday, the rival parties clashed over the National Intelligence Service's (NIS) announcement Tuesday that it had found the National Election Commission (NEC) network vulnerable to cyberattacks, especially from North Korea.

The NIS conducted a joint security evaluation of the NEC system with the Korea internet and Security Agency (KISA) for two months since July and found that the election watchdog's internal network and the voting management system could easily be infiltrated even through the internet, which could make vote results exposed to external manipulation. This included infiltrating the NEC's internal network at early voting polling stations through the telecommunication system.

NEC officials said Wednesday they are considering a plan to disclose to the public in real-time the CCTVs installed at the early voting booths and mail-in ballot box storage locations in all constituencies for next year's general elections. It said it hopes to dispel any suspicions of early voting manipulation and election fraud.

Hong Ik-pyo, the DP floor leader, criticized the NIS announcement, accusing the state spy agency of trying to "intervene in politics" in the eve of the by-election.

"I can't understand why the NIS announced the details of an inspection that was completed on Sept. 22 the day before the Gangseo District chief by-election," Hong said during a Supreme Council meeting Wednesday morning.

He called this "an act that undermines the credibility of elections" and "endangers democracy."

The PPP, in turn, criticized the NEC for poor ballot management and raised suspicions of possible election rigging in past governments.

PPP Chairman Kim wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday that the NEC's poor management of ballot boxes and counting "has left voting and ballot counting systems defenseless to hacking."

He added the NEC must reveal whether there had been any "conspiracy to manipulate the election results to their liking" during DP-controlled governments.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]