New Political Groups Threaten South Korea’s Ruling Party in Vote

(Bloomberg) -- The emergence of new South Korean political parties is likely to lower the chances of a victory by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s conservative party in April general elections, a report by BMI, a Fitch Solutions company, said.

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The report released Monday comes as former top officials of Yoon’s People Power Party and the progressive Democratic Party have established new parties ahead of the April 10 election where conservatives are trying to wrest control from the progressive bloc.

Gallup Korea’s weekly tracking poll published last week showed the approval ratings for the rival parties declined, respectively, in the first week of March as more respondents supported other choices ahead of the elections.

The survey showed a party founded by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, who was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and forced out of office due to corruption charges, has the biggest share of support among voters opting for a third choice, commanding 6%. Another party led by former PPP top official Lee Jun-seok had 3%.

Both parties are still far from the 37% support for the PPP and 31% for the Democratic Party, the survey showed.

“A failure by the PPP to secure a plurality or majority of seats in the election could cause Yoon to be reduced to ‘lame duck’ status for the remainder of his non-renewable term to May 2027,” the report said.

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