SEOUL (AFP) — South Korea's ruling party was mauled in its first electoral test since taking office, results showed Thursday, reflecting voter disquiet over the economy and a damaging row over US beef imports.
President Lee Myung-Bak's conservative Grand National Party (GNP) won only one of six by-elections where it was fielding candidates for the position of local government chief.
The main opposition United Democratic Party won two, one of them in Seoul.
Of 29 local assembly seats at stake, the liberal UDP took 14 to the GNP's meagre seven, with the rest shared by splinter groups and independents.
"We humbly accept the people's will reflected at the ballot boxes," a GNP spokeswoman said. "We have failed to communicate with the people and properly serve their needs."
Although small in scale, the elections were being seen as a first test at the ballot box for Lee, who took office in February two months after sweeping to a landslide victory.
Analysts say South Korea is already facing a leadership crisis as mass protests sparked by the beef deal pose the biggest challenge to his administration since its birth in late February.
Elected on a promise to reinvigorate the sluggish economy, he has seen his ratings plummet to around 20 percent as expectations fade of a quick turnaround as escalating protests over the beef deal have also eaten into his popularity.
Lee has also been criticised for appointing senior officials who have been linked to land speculation deals, and for pressing ahead with a cross-country canal project despite strong opposition.
Hahm Sung-Deuk, political economy professor at Korea University, said the crisis would deepen unless Lee dropped the forceful style that earned him the nickname of "Bulldozer" when he was a construction company executive.
He called for a radical solution: "He must forget about the 102 days since he took office and start from scratch by replacing almost all his presidential staff and government ministers."
"Washington should also come to the rescue of Lee, who is the best choice for the US, by accepting demands for renegotiation of the beef deal," he told AFP.
"Otherwise, the crisis could only become worse."
Earlier this week Lee did promise a cabinet shake-up, although it was not clear how extensive that would be.
South Korea last week announced the resumption of US beef imports to clear the way for Washington to ratify a free trade agreement between the countries.
However, bowing to public pressure and fears over mad cow disease, the government Monday announced a delay and asked Washington not to export older beef as a condition for resumption.
Agriculture Minister Chung Woon-Cheon said Thursday the indefinite delay would be "until the people's anxiety over mad cow perils dissipate."
But activists on Thursday appealed to the Constitutional Court demanding no resumption of beef imports and submitted a petition.
On Wednesday, the opposition said it would boycott parliament indefinitely in protest at the planned resumption -- a move that would effectively paralyse the assembly, which was to open Thursday for a new four-year term.
"The beef deal provided a spark to the highly charged atmosphere (which is) filled with anger and frustration at the harsh reality," said Kim Il-Young, a political science professor at Sung Kyun Kwan University.
He said political leaders were failing in their duty to arbitrate between conflicting interests.
"This is not only the president's mess," he told AFP, "but a crisis for the country's representative democracy as a whole."
The conservative Chosun daily, commenting on the election results, said voters were "passing judgement" on Lee.
It concluded: "It would have been strange for the ruling party not to have lost the by-elections."
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