Korean Party's Loss Continues Historic Pattern

European Pressphoto Agency

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon cheers at an election campaign office in Seoul on June 3 after his victory in the June 2 local elections.

By EVAN RAMSTAD

SEOUL—South Korea's ruling conservative Grand National Party lost some of its ability to drive the country's political agenda after results Thursday showed candidates from opposition parties fared better than expected in local and provincial elections a day earlier.

The results kept with a long-standing pattern in Korean politics, in which opposition parties make gains against the party of the sitting president partway through a presidential term. The gains this year were smaller than those made by opposition candidates in 2002 and 2006, however.

Before Wednesday's election, political analysts and polls suggested that ruling-party candidates might fare better than usual this year because of popularity of the GNP's hard-line stance on North Korea, which grabbed the spotlight after a recent deadly attack on a South Korean warship that President Lee Myung-bak and investigators blamed on the North.

More than 4,000 offices were decided, but analysts focused on 16 governor and mayoral races in declaring the gains by opposition candidates. Of those, the leading opposition Democratic Party won seven, the GNP six, independent candidates two and the Liberty Forward Party, which is also conservative, one.

The GNP's chairman and Mr. Lee's chief of staff offered to resign to take responsibility for the party's performance.

In Seoul, incumbent GNP mayor Oh Se-hoon narrowly won re-election with a 26,412-vote edge, less than 1% of the four million votes that were cast, over Democratic Party candidate Han Myeong-sook, a former prime minister.

Ms. Han conceded defeat but, rather than talking about Mr. Oh, focused on Mr. Lee, saying her strong performance showed that voters are dissatisfied with him as president and the GNP's control of the National Assembly.

A presidential spokesman said Mr. Lee discussed the results with advisers. He quoted Mr. Lee as saying, "We should take this opportunity to reflect on ourselves and focus on reviving the economy."

Analysts say Mr. Lee is likely to change some of his cabinet members in response to the election results and that GNP lawmakers may moderate their agenda with an eye toward retaining power in the 2012 national election.

—Jaeyeon Woo contributed to this article.