Former and current district chiefs quit PPP, ran as independents; four won in South Gyeongsang; Busan's Yeongdo-gu and Sasang-gu saw conservatives wipe each other out; lawmakers in affected districts now fear the bill comes due at the next general election

Mayor-elect Jo Gyu-il of Jinju (from left), Uiryeong-gun chief-elect Oh Tae-wan, Geochang-gun chief-elect Lee Hong-gi and Hapcheon-gun chief-elect Kim Yun-cheol. [National Election Commission candidate registry capture]
Mayor-elect Jo Gyu-il of Jinju (from left), Uiryeong-gun chief-elect Oh Tae-wan, Geochang-gun chief-elect Lee Hong-gi and Hapcheon-gun chief-elect Kim Yun-cheol. [National Election Commission candidate registry capture]

The June 3 local elections gave the People Power Party a majority of district chief seats in Busan and South Gyeongsang Province — but the headline number masked a deeper story: conservative infighting that cracked open what had long been the party's safest stronghold. Incumbents who bolted the party after being denied nominations either won outright or split the conservative vote badly enough to hand seats to the opposition, and the fractures ran wider than many had expected. The bigger worry now is that the same fault lines could shift the ground beneath PPP lawmakers when the 2028 general election arrives.

South Gyeongsang Province was the most troubled front. Nomination disputes and defections erupted across the province, and the PPP captured only 10 of 18 district chief races — barely a majority and identical to the party's tally in 2018, an election widely remembered as a rout for its predecessor, the Liberty Korea Party.

Four independents won district chief seats in South Gyeongsang: Jinju Mayor Jo Gyu-il, Uiryeong-gun chief Oh Tae-wan, Geochang-gun chief Lee Hong-gi and Hapcheon-gun chief Kim Yun-cheol. All four were sitting or former local chiefs who had been passed over in the PPP nomination process. Their ability to hold local support without a party label amounted to a public rebuke of the PPP's candidate selection. The nomination controversy and the independent surge also weighed on the provincial governor's race, with some core conservative voters peeling away and widening a rift inside the camp, analysts said.

In Busan, the PPP held only 9 of 16 district and county seats — a stark contrast to four years ago, when it swept every single one. In Yeongdo-gu, incumbent district mayor Kim Gi-jae quit the party after being cut from the nomination list and ran as an independent, splitting the conservative vote with PPP nominee Ahn Seong-min. The Democratic Party of Korea's Kim Cheol-hun exploited the opening and won.

In Sasang-gu, incumbent district mayor Jo Byeong-gil — expelled from the party over allegations that he used inside information to purchase a redevelopment housing unit in his district — pressed ahead as an independent, dividing the conservative vote with PPP candidate Lee Dae-hun. Democratic Party candidate Seo Tae-gyeong won the seat as a result.

The PPP also lost district chief races in Gijang-gun, Buk-gu, Saha-gu and Gangseo-gu along the Nakdong River belt, as well as in Nam-gu, all to the Democratic Party of Korea.

In local political circles, a growing number of National Assembly members representing these areas are said to be alarmed about the 2028 general election. When sitting or former local chiefs who lost their nominations can still command a meaningful share of public support as independents, it signals not only eroding trust in the party's candidate selection process but also a weakening of the lawmakers' own organizational grip on their districts. Political rivalries and grievances between Assembly members and local chiefs that surfaced during the local election campaign could replay themselves in full at the next general election, analysts warn.

The PK region — Busan and the Gyeongsang provinces — had long been the PPP's last unassailable fortress. This election confirmed it no longer is. The South Gyeongsang governor survived, but the party lost the Busan and Ulsan mayoral races to the Democratic Party and surrendered a significant number of South Gyeongsang district chief seats to figures who had walked out of its own ranks. The prospect that conservative voters could turn their backs on the PPP banner depending on how nominations are handled has moved from theory to reality.

"Nomination upheavals that shut out incumbents have happened before every election cycle," a local political figure said, "but the backlash — nominations that alienated both the party base and the broader public, followed by defections and independent runs — will come back as a bill to be paid at the general election two years from now." The source added that "lawmakers who failed to hold their local district chiefs will not escape their share of the blame."


kaf2002@heraldcorp.com