Democratic Party of Korea candidate Park Chan-dae is leading People Power Party candidate Yoo Jeong-bok by a margin outside the error range in the Incheon mayoral race of the 9th nationwide local elections, exit polls showed.
According to a joint exit poll conducted Tuesday by the three terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC, and SBS, Park garnered 53.7 percent of the vote, while Yoo received 45.5 percent — a gap of 8.2 percentage points.
The exit poll was carried out by Ipsos Korea, surveying every fifth voter at polling stations across Incheon from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. The margin of error is ±1.7 to 4.1 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
Immediately after the results were announced, cheers erupted at Park's "Dangchan Camp." As the exit poll figures appeared on screen, campaign officials broke into applause. With the gap exceeding the margin of error, the camp showed clear confidence in victory.
The Yoo camp now faces an uphill battle to turn the tide as the exit poll gap exceeded expectations. Yoo had aimed to become Incheon's first three-term mayor, leveraging his administrative experience from the sixth and eighth popularly elected terms, but the advantage of the ruling party appears to have proved insurmountable.
If the results hold, Incheon will return to Democratic Party control for the first time in eight years since former Mayor Park Nam-choon. The People Power Party's grip on Incheon, which had been maintained since Mayor Yoo's 2022 election, will come to a halt.
Vote counting begins at 8 p.m., with the final results expected to be confirmed around midnight.
