Women elected to only 10 of 243 top local government roles in Korea

An individual casts their poll within the June 3, 2026, native elections at a polling station in Busan’s Haeundae District. (Yonhap)

Solely 10 ladies have been elected to guide native governments in South Korea’s native elections final week, profitable simply 10 of the 243 metropolitan and municipal chief positions up for grabs. Critics say the outcomes spotlight the continued lack of illustration for girls and minorities in politics.

In line with an evaluation of knowledge from the Nationwide Election Fee’s election statistics system launched on Sunday by the Korean Ladies Parliamentarian Community, ladies accounted for 1,398 of the 4,226 profitable candidates in Wednesday’s native elections, or 33.1% of the entire.

The determine represents a rise of 218 from the final spherical of native elections in 2022, when 1,180 ladies have been elected, accounting for 28.6% of all winners. 

The variety of ladies elected to metropolitan councils and provincial assemblies rose by 67, from 115 to 182, whereas ladies’s illustration in municipal and district councils elevated by 112, from 650 to 762.

Regardless of the general good points, little modified in probably the most influential native authorities positions. 

Of the 243 seats for metropolitan mayors, provincial governors, and municipal or district leaders, solely 10 have been received by ladies, accounting for 4.1% of the entire. That compares with seven ladies native authorities elected within the 2022 elections (2.9%) and eight within the 2018 elections (3.3%).

Ladies’s teams say the outcomes of final week’s elections present that the political glass ceiling stays firmly in place.

“These native elections as soon as once more confirmed how unwilling political events are to interrupt the entrenched male-dominated political construction and safe larger illustration for girls and minorities,” the Korean Ladies’s Associations United mentioned in an announcement launched Friday.

“So long as our political system continues to push ladies and minorities to the margins, discrimination and exclusion will proceed to be issues,” the group mentioned. 

The group nonetheless pointed to a number of notable achievements by feminine politicians. Amongst them was the election of former Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae as governor of Gyeonggi Province, making her the nation’s first feminine head of a province.  

Different milestones included the election of Kim Me-kyung of Eunpyeong District as Seoul’s first girl to win three consecutive phrases as a district workplace chief, and Mayor Kim Bo-ra of Anseong turning into the nation’s first feminine mayor to safe a 3rd time period.

Nonetheless, the group cautioned that such achievements shouldn’t be handled as distinctive instances. 

“To make sure that these accomplishments are usually not remembered as outliers, the political construction itself, which continues to underrepresent ladies, should change,” it mentioned.

By Son Ji-min, employees reporter

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