South Korea opposition pads majority in Assembly

South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) increased its majority in parliamentary elections on Wednesday, exit polls suggested.

The opposition parties together appeared on track to secure a super-majority of 200 in the 300-seat National Assembly, the exit polls indicated.

Voters seemed to have heeded calls by DP for support.

“Please vote to prevent the political force that has betrayed the people from attaining a parliamentary majority,” DP head Lee Jae-myung said in a call to supporters.

President Yoon Suk Yeol’s People Power Party (PPP), also rallied voters.

“Please give us a minimum number of seats that we can use to keep this immoral and shameless opposition in check,” Han Dong-hoon, head of PPP, said on the eve of the poll.

From the start of his presidency, Yoon has been unpopular, with ratings hitting the low 30s, and the PPP’s lack of control of the National Assembly has stymied his socially conservative legislative agenda.

This includes planned healthcare reforms — that are backed by voters but have sparked a crippling strike by doctors — and a pledge to abolish the ministry of gender equality.

Voters aged 60 and older, who outnumber those in both their 20s and 30s, represent a formidable and staunchly conservative base for Yoon,” Sharon Yoon, a Korean studies professor at the University of Notre Dame, told Agence France-Presse.

Younger Koreans are less likely to vote at all, with many saying they are put off by a political class dominated by older men who ignore their concerns.

The younger generation is also struggling economically, with cut-throat competition in education, fewer job opportunities and sky-high housing costs.