Former President Lee Myung-back greets voters at a market in Busan while campaigning for People Power Party mayoral candidate Park Heong-joon on May 31, 2026. (Yonhap)
As Korean voters prepare to cast their ballots in the country’s local elections and by-elections on Wednesday, the ruling and opposition parties are seeking to galvanize their supporters.The ruling Democratic Party is urging voters to back President Lee Jae Myung, while the opposition People Power Party (PPP) says the “arrogant” Lee administration needs to be taught a lesson.The Democratic Party slammed former Presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye’s electioneering for PPP candidates as “political backsliding.” At the same time, the president’s encouragement for Koreans to head to the ballot box earned a rebuke from the PPP as “election interference.”The Democratic Party put Lee front and center in its get-out-the-vote efforts in the final week of the campaign.Jung Chung-rae, the leader of the Democratic Party, did a whistle-stop circuit of Gurye, South Jeolla Province, and locations in North and South Chungcheong provinces on Sunday while declaring at every stop, “If you trust the president, vote No. 1!”“If you like President Lee, if you want to back him up, please vote for candidates marked as No. 1. That’s the Democratic Party, the president’s party,” Jung said while on the stump in Gurye.Korean ballots number candidates by party affiliation, with those belonging to the ruling Democratic Party marked as “No. 1.”But the PPP sought to frame the local elections as an opportunity to punish the Lee administration.“Because of political apathy in the past parliamentary elections and presidential election, the totally unfit Lee Jae Myung and his Democratic Party are running the country. Let’s head to the polls so we can stop Lee’s reckless behavior,” PPP leader Jang Dong-hyuk said during a press conference at the party’s main office in Seoul’s Yeouido neighborhood.Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak hit the campaign trails in Daegu and Busan, respectively, to campaign for PPP candidates. In Daegu, Park joined mayoral candidate Choo Kyung-ho at the city’s Seomun Market and Suseong Lake as he appealed to voters in one of the closest-watched races of this election cycle. With the exception of the greater Seoul area and the liberal-leaning southwestern regions, Park has crisscrossed the nation to throw her weight behind PPP candidates ahead of Wednesday’s election. Lee Myung-bak visited Busan on Sunday to campaign for Mayor Park Heong-joon’s reelection and as well as to support Park Min-sik’s bid for an empty National Assembly seat in one of the city’s northern districts. The PPP hopes that the high-profile backing from two former presidents will help them rally the conservative base. The Democrats see it differently. “Despite President Lee Jae Myung being in office, we can’t seem to be rid of three jailbird presidents — Yoon Suk-yeol, Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye,” Jung, the Democratic Party leader, said during a rally in Gurye. “What these three former presidents have in common is that they are either in prison or have previously been incarcerated. Their activities represent a regression to the past, a distortion of democracy, and contempt toward the people,” he went on. Lee Jae Myung repeatedly urged the public to go to the polls. “Giving up one’s vote is not a sign of staying neutral, but standing on the side of those who are actively harming one’s lives and communities,” he posted on Saturday. The president followed that up with a similar post on Sunday. “If the sovereign people of a democratic republic choose to stay silent and surrender their right to vote, they are opening the way for forces who will deceive the people, abuse their power for their personal interests, and wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary people and their families,” he wrote on X. The PPP reacted strongly to the president’s comments, with Jang Dong-hyuk calling it an “attempt to divide the people after noticing that the election isn’t going his way.” “Does this not prove that Lee has become a malevolent ruler?” Jang asked. By Choi Ha-yan, staff reporter; Yu Yeong-jae, staff reporter; Seo Young-ji, staff reporterPlease direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
