Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Independent candidate Park Won Soon won the Seoul mayoral election, dealing a blow to the ruling party ahead of elections for South Korea’s legislature and president next year.

Park, 55, beat Na Kyung Won, a lawmaker from President Lee Myung Bak’s Grand National Party, by 53.4 percent to 46.2 percent, the National Election Commission said on its website. Park, a lawyer and civic activist, had criticized Lee’s policy of eschewing broad engagement with North Korea, and tapped discontent with a widening wealth gap and elevated inflation.

“This clearly doesn’t bode well for the Grand National Party, they really have an uphill battle” ahead of the legislative elections in April, said Jae Ku, director of the U.S.-Korea Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Washington. Any move by the opposition to coalesce around a credible presidential candidate would also likely see a defeat for the current ruling party, he said...

[Via Businessweek]

[Image Credit: http://wonsoon.com/]