Roh's Uri Party celebrates likely election win

Roh's Uri Party celebrates likely election win

Jack Kim, Reuters, Seoul

South Korea's pro-government Uri Party erupted in triumph on Thursday as exit polls predicted a major victory for the pro- government party in the parliamentary election.

Party officials and supporters chanted "We won! We won!" as preliminary results began flashing through at party headquarters putting Uri ahead of the main opposition Grand National Party (GNP).

The Uri party appeared to harvest a windfall of support for impeached President Roh Moo-hyun.

The exit polls showed the Uri Party, which backs Roh, winning up to 172 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly. They saw the main opposition Grand National Party taking up to 115 seats.

Uri party leader Chung Dong-young, who had been fasting since Monday night in penance for campaign comments that had angered aged voters and cast a shadow over his party's election chances, blinked back tears as he urged caution until the results been more certain later in the evening.

Afforded a hero's welcome at Uri's election situation room even before exit polls started coming in, Chung left an hour later for a medical checkup and to receive intravenous fluids for dehydration.

Uri supporters also broke into chants of "Roh Moo-hyun" and "Scrap the impeachment" as a giant TV screen flashed pictures of the president and his wife casting their votes early in the day.

Roh was impeached by the opposition-controlled parliament on March 12 for breaching election laws by making comments in support of the Uri Party, and his powers are suspended pending a ruling by the Constitutional Court.

"We won, there's no question about it," said Kim Sung-ho, an Uri lawmaker until the current session closes out on May 31.

Cases of makkoli, a fermented Korean rice wine, were being delivered to the rear of the compound for a celebration party supporters hoped would come later in the night.

"We're going to have wait to see," said a party official coyly as he carried some makkoli toward the party venue.

The provisional turnout was 56.2 percent of South Korea's 35.6 million eligible voters, the commission said.

The presumptive winner, the pro-government Uri Party, was celebrating with roast pork and fermented rice wine -- although it had not made a victory speech -- after exit polls showed it had won at least half of the 299 National Assembly seats.

South Korea has a population of 48 million people living in an area the size of Belgium or the U.S. state of Pennsylvania.