S Korea's governing party faces setback in local polls

President Lee Myung-bak's party has suffered a surprising setback in local elections that were widely seen as a referendum on his handling of North Korea's alleged torpedoing of a South Korean warship.
Results from the elections were released, and the voter turnout of 54.5 percent was the highest for local elections in 15 years.
Candidates of Lee's governing Grand National Party had hoped that outrage in South Korea over the sinking of the Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors, would help them ride a conservative wave to victory. Lee's government has formally accused North Korea of attacking the ship on March 26 with a torpedo from a submarine, a charge that the North has denied.
“The election results were far less than we had expected and hoped for,” Cho Hae-jin, a spokesman for the governing party, said. The party's chairman, Chung Mong-joon, an important ally of Lee, said he was stepping down over the poor results. Lee's chief of staff, Chung Chung-kil, also offered to resign.
Pre-election surveys showed that a majority of South Koreans blamed North Korea for the warship incident, which the government characterized as the worst North Korean military provocation since the end of the Korean War. Those surveys and political analysts had predicted that the president's party would win at least 9 of 16 crucial races to elect big-city mayors and provincial governors in the voting on Wednesday.
But the party won only six of the elections. Its main rival, the Democratic Party, won seven. The remaining three races were won by two independents and a candidate from a small opposition party.
The results were a blow to Lee's efforts to rally popular support for his campaign to punish North Korea. He also wanted a fresh mandate to push through his controversial $19 billion project to dredge and dam the country's four main rivers.