SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – An exit poll showed President Park Geun-hye's conservative party and its main liberal opposition dividing some key mayoral and provincial races in elections Wednesday being seen as a test of public sentiment over the handling of the ferry disaster that left 300 people dead or missing.

The poll predicted Park's Saenuri Party and the main opposition party would each win five of 17 important mayoral and provincial governor posts. The poll, jointly conducted by the SBS, KBS and MBC television networks, showed seven other key races were too close to call.

Regional rivalry runs deep in South Korea, and the exit poll projected easy wins in most of the parties' traditional strongholds.

About 3,950 regional posts were up for grabs in the elections, including 17 jobs that often are springboards for future national leaders. The official results, expected late Wednesday, won't lead to any structural change in the central government or National Assembly, but could still be important for Park, who is facing her biggest political crisis since she took office early last year.

Her approval ratings have plummeted since the April 16 disaster. She has apologized several times amid growing public criticism of how her government conducted search and rescue operations and monitored safety issues before the sinking.

Analysts say strong public criticism of Park following the sinking, mostly led by liberal, younger South Koreans, has likely pushed Park's base voters _ older and conservative – to rally behind ruling party candidates in a country deeply split between left and right.

Seven weeks after the sinking, 288 bodies have been recovered and 16 are still missing. Two divers have died during the search. The disaster has caused an outburst of national grief, with family members of missing people still camping out at a port.