South Koreans cast their ballots during the parliamentary elections at a polling station located in a wedding hall in Seoul on April 10, 2024. - AFP
SEOUL: South Korea's main opposition Democratic Party increased its majority in parliamentary elections on Wednesday (April 10), a joint exit poll by three major television networks showed.
The DP and a small allied party were forecast to win up to 197 seats in the 300-member parliament, the poll showed, with the ruling People Power Party and its satellite set to secure between 85 and 99 seats -- down from the 114 they held in the last parliament.
The newly founded Rebuilding Korea party set up by former justice minister Cho Kuk was forecast to secure 12 to 14 seats, the exit poll said.
Cho, who ran on a staunchly anti-government platform, is widely expected to ally with the DP, which could give the combined opposition a supermajority of more than 200 seats.
The exit polls, which are conducted by three major broadcasters, interview nearly 360,000 voters across polling stations nationwide
Ruling party members were in a sombre mood as the exit polls outcome was broadcast. But cheering and clapping erupted among opposition DP members watching the count at the National Assembly.
The result would be a stinging rebuke to South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol, with many analysts warning that a failure by his party to win back control of parliament would render him a lame duck for the remainder of his term, leaving him unable to implement his socially conservative agenda. - AFP
