Seoul Mayor Race Decided by Narrow Margin After All-Night Count

The Seoul mayoral election was a nail-biter, with Oh Se-hoon of the People Power Party ultimately securing victory after a marathon vote count that stretched into the next day. Exit polls released Sunday evening initially suggested a win for Jung Won-shik of the Democratic Party, projecting 51.4% of the vote compared to Oh's 46%.

As the ballots were tallied, the race tightened dramatically. Oh's campaign office, which had been subdued after the initial projections, saw a surge of hope as the gap narrowed. By early Monday morning, the lead had swung back and forth, with the margin shrinking to as little as 0.1%.

Oh eventually took the lead around 7:16 a.m. and widened the gap to over 30,000 votes by mid-morning. He appeared at his campaign office around 10 a.m. to claim victory. "There wasn't a single moment from the start of the campaign that I wasn't confident of victory," Oh told supporters, though he added he approached the race with the spirit of a challenger. The close contest underscored the deep political divisions within South Korea's capital.

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There wasn't a single moment from the start of the campaign that I wasn't confident of victory.