The ruling bloc, which had sought to shape a law-enforcement-driven political landscape ahead of the June 3 local elections, has abruptly moved to adjust the timing of the "Yoon Suk-yeol Administration Fabricated Indictment Special Prosecutor Bill." The shift is interpreted as a response to signs of conservative consolidation in an election race where the ruling side had been expected to hold the advantage. President Lee Jae-myung, who had remained reticent, personally called for further deliberation on the bill — a move read as a strategic judgment that the legislation could sway the electoral outcome.
Cho Seung-rae, secretary-general of the Democratic Party, held a press briefing at the National Assembly on Tuesday and said regarding the bill, "We will proceed after considering its impact on the election and gathering a range of opinions." Aligning with President Lee's call that "the special prosecutor bill requires further national deliberation," the party stepped back from its earlier stance that the bill could be passed before the local elections.
Analysts say a decisive factor behind the delay was input from candidates running in the Yeongnam region, where the Democratic Party trails. Rep. Kwon Chil-seung, who is supporting Kim Boo-kyum, the party's candidate for Daegu mayor, reportedly posted on a Telegram chat involving about 150 Democratic Party lawmakers that "the special prosecutor bill should be postponed until after the local elections." The post raised concerns that the bill's introduction was galvanizing conservative voters. In a Realmeter survey commissioned by Energy Economy Newspaper of 2,006 adults aged 18 and older conducted from the 27th to the 30th of last month (margin of error ±2.2 percentage points at a 95% confidence level, response rate 4.6%), positive assessments of President Lee's performance fell to 59.5%, breaking below 60% for the first time in eight weeks. Some polls for the Daegu mayoral race also showed Kim in a tight contest within the margin of error against People Power Party candidate Choo Kyung-ho.
As the ruling bloc came under pressure over the bill, the opposition launched a sweeping counteroffensive. Opposition candidates for metropolitan government heads in the Seoul capital area held a joint meeting Tuesday and pledged a coordinated response to the bill. The gathering brought together People Power Party candidates Oh Se-hoon for Seoul mayor, Yoo Jeong-bok for Incheon mayor and Yang Hyang-ja for Gyeonggi governor, along with Reform Party candidates Kim Jung-chul for Seoul mayor and Cho Eung-chun for Gyeonggi governor.
Cho, who proposed the joint meeting, said, "How can a special prosecutor appointed by the president withdraw indictments that would erase the president's own wrongdoings? Local autonomy and the livelihood economy are nothing but a house of cards on a foundation where the rule of law has collapsed." Oh added, "It is truly deplorable that a case hard to imagine even in an underdeveloped African country decades ago is now unfolding in 21st-century Korea. No matter how pressing the local election schedule is, a consensus is forming that we must unite our hearts and block this at all costs."
Detailed survey information is available on the website of the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission.
