After 35-hour delay, Songpa District vote count completed and Seoul Metropolitan Council finalized

The vote count for the 2026 local elections, which took place on Wednesday, finally finished on Friday afternoon after voting was severely delayed at a polling station in Songpa District due to a shortage of ballot papers on Wednesday evening.

The counting of two ballot boxes from the polling station, containing votes cast by about 2,000 Songpa District residents, began around 10 a.m. and was completed later in the afternoon.

In the Seoul mayoral election, People Power Party (PPP) candidate Oh Se-hoon officially closed his victory with 49.22 percent of the vote by a margin of 1.15 percentage points over his opponent, ruling Democratic Party (DP) candidate Chong Won-o, who received 48.07 percent. Oh received 2,575,819 votes, while Chong received 2,515,560 votes, a difference of 60,259 votes.

The final count also determined the allocation of the 15 proportional representation seats in the Seoul Metropolitan Council. The proportional representation distribution, initially calculated as eight seats for the DP and seven seats for the opposing PPP, was revised to eight seats for the PPP and seven seats for the DP.

As a result, the final composition of the 118 members of the 12th Seoul Metropolitan Council elected through the June 3 local elections — consisting of 103 district representatives and 15 proportional representatives — was confirmed as 80 DP members, including 73 district representatives and seven proportional representatives, and 38 PPP members, including 30 district representatives and eight proportional representatives.

By gender, 75 members are men and 43 are women. By age group, there are 22 members in their 30s, 33 in their 40s, 32 in their 50s, 29 in their 60s and two in their 70s.

By profession, the council consists of 33 incumbent Seoul Metropolitan Council members, 52 politicians, 13 professionals, eight businesspeople, three educators and nine others. The politicians category includes district council members and is based on information submitted during candidate registration with the National Election Commission.

By number of terms served, there is one five-term member, one four-term member, 12 three-term members, 30 second-term members and 74 first-term members. Among the 30 second-term members, 18 belong to the DP and 12 to the PPP. Among the 74 first-term members, including proportional representatives, 51 belong to the DP and 23 to the PPP.

The term of the 12th Seoul Metropolitan Council will run from July 1 through June 30, 2030. The council will hold its first extraordinary session next month to elect the speaker, deputy speakers and standing committee chairs for the first half of the term and begin legislative activities.

On Wednesday, voting at Jamsil 7-dong’s Second Polling Station in Songpa District was extended until 10 p.m. because of a shortage of ballot papers. The counting of two ballot boxes containing about 2,000 ballots was delayed after protesters blocked officials from collecting the boxes, claiming that election fraud had taken place.

On Friday morning, police deployed about 1,000 officers from 18 mobile units and succeeded in removing the two ballot boxes from the polling station. The removal came 35 hours after protesters began blocking access.

Police immediately loaded the ballot boxes onto vehicles and transported them to the handball arena at Olympic Park in Songpa District, which served as the counting center. Because vote counting is conducted by each neighborhood unit, or dong, officials had been unable to open the ballot box from Jamsil 7-dong’s First Polling Station while they were waiting for the Second Polling Station ballot boxes to arrive. Both ballot boxes were counted together after their arrival.

BY CHO MUN-GYU [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]