Is South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol at risk of becoming a lame duck president after election?

Yoon would still be able to use his presidential executive orders and veto powers to cope with the opposition-controlled outgoing parliament. But an election defeat would weaken his say over the administration and deprive him of much influence over lawmakers from his party, political observers said.

“It’s hardly likely for the ruling party to grab a parliamentary majority and Yoon is at risk of becoming a political lame duck sooner than expected”, Chosun University political science professor Jhee Byong-kuen told This Week in Asia.

Recent opinion polls paint a grim picture for the ruling People Power Party (PPP), prompting its top campaigner Han Dong-hoon to warn last week that a defeat in the elections would impede the Yoon government’s ability to follow through on promised reforms during the remaining three years of his official five-year term.

According to a Korea Gallup poll conducted between March 19-21 nationwide, 36 per cent of respondents said more PPP candidates should be elected to help Yoon carry out his presidency while 51 per cent said more opposition lawmakers should win to keep his administration in check in the April 10 parliamentary elections.

The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points at 95 per cent confidence.

Pollsters mostly agree that the main liberal opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the reformist Rebuilding Korea Party (RKP) are expected to jointly seize the majority in the 300-seat National Assembly, extending their parliamentary control for another four years.

In what critics said was an apparent bid to help rally support among conservatives for the Yoon government, the conservative Chosun newspaper warned in a column on Tuesday that an opposition victory in