Why does this election matter?
South Koreans go to the polls on April 10 to select a new 300-member National Assembly. The parliamentary elections are widely seen as a midterm referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeol. They will also serve as a vote of confidence on the opposition Democratic Party, which has held majority control in the Assembly for the past four years.
Mr. Yoon won the presidential election in March 2022 by a razor-thin margin, and three months later, his People Power Party won the most big-city mayor and provincial governor races. But two major handicaps have hobbled his presidency: his party’s lack of control in the single-chamber Assembly and Mr. Yoon’s low approval ratings.
An electoral victory by his party could add momentum to Mr. Yoon’s four major reform programs involving the country’s health care, education, labor and national pension systems, as well as his promise to abolish the nation’s ministry of gender equality. Mr. Yoon will also see it as lending political legitimacy to his policy of aligning South Korea more closely with the United States.
But if the opposition scores a decisive win, it will further weaken Mr. Yoon’s leadership and may turn him into an early lame duck, political analysts say.
