Geurasia

South Korea's prime minister and top presidential officials offer to resign after election defeat

Photo: AFP/Chung Sung-Jun

Eurasia 11/04/2024 19:07

South Korea’s prime minister and senior presidential officials offered to resign Thursday after their ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections.

The results of Wednesday’s elections mean the opposition forces will prolong their control of parliament until after President Yoon Suk Yeol completes his single five-year term in 2027. That will likely set back Yoon’s domestic agenda and weaken his grip on the ruling party as he faces the opposition’s intensifying political offensive during his remaining three years in office, experts say.

Prime Minister Han Duck-soo and all senior presidential advisers to Yoon, except those in charge of security issues, expressed their intentions to resign, according to Yoon’s office. It didn’t immediately say whether Yoon accepted their resignations.

AFP/Jung Yeon-je

Executive power in South Korea is heavily concentrated in the president, but the prime minister is the No. 2 official and leads the country if the president becomes incapacitated.

Yoon said he will “humbly uphold” the public sentiments reflected in the election outcome and focus on improving people’s economic situations and reforming state affairs, said presidential chief of staff Lee Kwan-seop, in a televised briefing. Lee said he also offered to quit.

In a separate news conference, ruling People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon said he would step down as well to take responsibility for the election defeat.
“I apologize to the people on behalf of our party, which wasn’t good enough to win the people’s choices,” he said.

With all the votes counted, the main opposition Democratic Party and its satellite party won a combined 175 seats in the 300-member National Assembly. Another small liberal opposition party obtained 12 seats under a proportional representation system, according to the National Election Commission.

Yoon’s People Power Party and its satellite party won 108 seats, the election commission said.

The final voter turnout for South Korea’s 44 million eligible voters was tentatively estimated at 67%, the highest for a parliamentary election since 1992, according to the election commission.

Regardless of the results, Yoon will stay in power and his major foreign policies will likely be unchanged. But the elections were widely seen as a midterm confidence vote on the former top prosecutor who took office in 2022.

#South Korea

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South Korea's prime minister and top presidential officials offer to resign after election defeat

South Korea’s prime minister and senior presidential officials offered to resign Thursday after their ruling party suffered a crushing defeat in parliamentary elections.

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