Main voting for the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections began at 6 a.m. Tuesday, starting the countdown to the birth of local government leaders who will shape the future of 14.2 million Gyeonggi Province residents.
Gyeonggi Province will elect one governor and one superintendent of education. Voters will also select 31 heads of basic municipalities, 167 metropolitan council members (145 from districts and 21 proportional), and 472 basic council members (415 from districts and 57 proportional), all of whom will begin four-year terms in July.
As the nation's largest metropolitan local government, Gyeonggi has 11,878,997 eligible voters, the most among all cities and provinces nationwide. This represents an increase of 381,791 voters compared to the 8th nationwide simultaneous local elections, when there were 11,497,206.
The dominant analysis is that this election will favor candidates from the ruling Democratic Party, as it marks the first nationwide election under the Lee Jae-myung administration—born from the early presidential election held after the impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol—at a point when the administration has passed one-fifth of its term. Favorable factors such as the KOSPI entering the 8,000 era are among the key indicators suggesting strong performance by ruling party candidates. The unprecedented situation in which Democratic Party candidate Lim Byung-taek for Siheung mayor secured an early uncontested victory due to a lack of opposition, along with 10 metropolitan council members from the Democratic Party winning without a vote, lends weight to this outlook of Democratic Party dominance.
However, there are also forecasts that the opposition People Power Party (PPP) could perform well, given the combined effects of high inflation stemming from the Middle East war and voter sentiment to check the ruling party.
The Democratic Party predicted that its candidate Choo Mi-ae would defeat PPP candidate Yang Hyang-ja by a double-digit margin in the Gyeonggi gubernatorial race. The PPP, on the other hand, projected a close race as candidate Yang gains momentum in the final stretch. Aggregating recent polling trends, Choo and Yang are expected to compete for the top spot, making the election of the first-ever female Gyeonggi governor virtually certain barring an upset.
Attention is also drawn to the performance of minor party candidates, including Cho Eung-cheon of the Reform Party, Hong Sung-kyu of the Progressive Party, and Kim Hyun-wook of the People's Alliance.
The Gyeonggi chapter of the Democratic Party predicted victories in 25 to 26 of the 31 basic municipal head elections, including Siheung. The Gyeonggi chapter of the PPP, with 22 incumbent municipal heads from its party, expressed expectations of strong performance based on this foundation, projecting wins in 10 areas.
Apart from these forecasts, both parties are showing keen interest in the results in two areas: Yongin and Seongnam. Both cities are massive metropolitan cities of around 1 million people in the capital region and carry symbolic significance as centers of Korea's high-tech industrial development. For this reason, the contests are dubbed the "Yong-Seong (Yongin-Seongnam) Showdown," with negative campaigning between the two parties' candidates fiercer than in any other region, drawing attention to the final results. According to officials from both parties, the weight of these two basic municipal elections is comparable to that of the gubernatorial race.
The provincial superintendent of education race will be decided in a head-to-head contest between incumbent Superintendent Lim Tae-hee from the conservative camp and Ahn Min-suk from the progressive camp. Both candidates, weighty figures with political backgrounds, are watching the direction of voter sentiment with a low-key stance, saying neither can be confident of an advantage until the end.
This local election also features fiercely contested by-elections for three National Assembly seats in the province.
In the Pyeongtaek-B by-election, held alongside the local elections, the Democratic Party's Kim Yong-nam, the PPP's Yoo Eui-dong, the Rebuilding Korea Party's Cho Kuk, the Progressive Party's Kim Jae-yeon, and the Liberty and Innovation Party's Hwang Kyo-ahn are engaged in a fierce five-way race, drawing attention not only locally but nationwide.
The Ansan-A by-election features a three-way contest among the Democratic Party's Kim Nam-guk, the PPP's Kim Seok-hoon, and the Reform Party's Moon In-soo, while the Hanam-A by-election features another three-way race among the Democratic Party's Lee Kwang-jae, the PPP's Lee Yong, and the Reform Party's Kim Sung-yeol, both drawing additional interest.
In this local election, Gyeonggi Province recorded an early voting turnout of 20.96%. This is higher than the 19.06% early voting turnout in the previous local election. It remains to be seen what results this high turnout will produce.
Meanwhile, as of 9 a.m., the average voter turnout in Gyeonggi was tallied at 7.1%. This is 1.1 percentage points higher than the 6.0% turnout recorded at the same time during the previous election.
