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| ▲ This photo shows Oh Se-hoon, the Seoul mayoral candidate of the People Power Party, during a press conference on March 22, 2021. (Yonhap) |
Seoul mayor election-opposition candidate
Oh Se-hoon wins bipartisan primary to become unified opposition candidate for Seoul mayoral election
SEOUL, March 23 (Yonhap) -- Ex-Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon beat software mogul-turned-politician Ahn Cheol-soo Tuesday to become the single opposition candidate for the upcoming Seoul mayoral by-election, as opinion polls project a possible election victory for the opposition bloc.
Oh, who is running on the ticket of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), was declared the winner of a bipartisan primary against Ahn, the leader of the conservative minor People's Party (PP), according to the primary results.
The results were based solely on opinion polls conducted on 3,200 voters via mobile phones Monday by two pollsters.
Sharing common election platforms critical of the Moon Jae-in administration in its fourth year, the two have been seeking to merge their campaigns in a bid to raise chances of election victory for the broader opposition bloc.
The latest primary victory, which came just two weeks ahead of the by-election, sets up Oh as the most powerful candidate for the mayoral election, seen widely as a major bellwether for the 2022 presidential election, according to the latest opinion polls.
Recent opinion polls showed both Oh and Ahn lead Park Young-sun, the candidate from the ruling Democratic Party (DP), by a wide margin in a hypothetical two-way race that pits Park against either of the two.
The upcoming mayoral by-election for Seoul, home to nearly 10 million of the country's total 52 million population, is deemed a critical barometer of public opinion ahead of the presidential election in March 2022.
The winner of the upcoming Seoul mayor election will serve out the remaining 14 months of late former Mayor Park Won-soon's four-year term.
Last July, Park was found dead in an apparent suicide on the hills of a Seoul mountain, two days after his former secretary filed a complaint with the police accusing him of having sexually harassed her for several years.
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