By Hyonhee Shin, Sebin Choi and Jack Kim
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea’s main opposition party and its allies were projected to win a majority in Wednesday’s elections for the country’s legislature, exit polls showed, in what would mark a significant blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol.
A joint poll released by KBS, MBC and SBS broadcasters estimated that the opposition Democratic Party (DP) and its minor allies could secure between 183-197 seats in the single-chamber, 300-seat parliament, and Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) and its affiliates would win 85-100.
Another poll conducted by cable network JTBC showed the opposition camp was likely to get 168-193 seats, while it put the PPP coalition on 87-111.
The bitterly fought race was seen by some analysts as a referendum on Yoon, whose popularity has suffered amid a cost-of-living crisis and a spate of political scandals.
Official results are not expected to be released until the early hours of Thursday, but exits polls in previous elections have given a broadly accurate reflection of the results.
(Reporting by Jack Kim, Sebin Choi, Daewoung Kim and Hyonhee Shin; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Ed Davies)
