South Korean ballots focus attention on handling of ferry disaster

South Koreans voted on Wednesday in regional and mayoral elections seen as a referendum on embattled President Park Geun-hye and her government’s handling of a ferry disaster that killed more than 300 people in April.

The sinking of the ferry Sewol has sidelined traditional campaign issues, such as jobs, education and welfare, and focused attention on a debate over the perceived failure of Asia’s fourth-largest economy to enforce safety standards.

“Having seen the lax response to the Sewol incident by the government, I’m giving the opposition a chance this time as a way to reproach the government,” 23-year-old Kim Soo-hyun said after casting her vote in the capital, Seoul.

Park’s approval ratings fell sharply from 61 to 46 per cent in the days after the April 16 ferry disaster – her lowest since coming to power in February last year – and show little sign of improving.

Opposition candidates look set to win key mayoral races in Seoul, neighbouring Incheon and Busan in the southeast, but Park’s ruling conservative New Frontier Party is unlikely to suffer landslide defeats.

Polls by Gallup Korea in late May suggested more than 40 per cent of voters still support the New Frontier Party. Only 28 per cent said they supported the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD).