This year’s general elections are shaping up to be a battle between the ruling party that aims to maintain dominance and the main opposition party that hopes to “pass judgment” on the Moon Jae-in administration. Both project that they will take majority, but the outlook remains unclear.

The exceptions are centered on the southwestern city of Gwangju and surrounding North and South Jeolla provinces for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, and Daegu and adjoining North Gyeongsang Province for the main opposition United Future Party.

In these areas -- longtime strongholds of the two rival parties -- both project sweeping victories. The ruling party said it would claim at least 26 out of 28 constituencies in Gwangju and Jeolla provinces, whereas the United Future Party said its projection was 24 out of 25 seats in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province.

“No, we don’t plan to go for campaigning there (in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province) any time soon. I mean we would, but it’ll probably be right before the election day on April 15,” a United Future Party campaign official told local media Friday.

The ruling party acknowledged that a clear win in the conservative-leaning Daegu and surrounding region is unlikely.

“From what we see on our timetable now, there will be no campaign plans there. We can’t cover all the grounds anyway now, because of the coronavirus outbreak,” said a ruling party campaign official.

President Moon recently saw his rating reach another peak in more than 17 months for his countermeasures against COVID-19, but his approval rating was lowest in Daegu and North Gyeongsang Province, hit-hardest by the outbreak.

Given the sentiment there, the ruling party instead chose to muster firepower in adjacent South Gyeongsang Province, which encompasses the cities of Busan and Ulsan, where the Democratic Party of Korea stood a better chance of seizing at least 10 out of 40 seats.

That was not enough to introduce a meaningful liberal foothold there to prop up liberal presidential hopefuls in the coming years, but it could serve as a firewall at least, against complete conservative dominance of both North and South Gyeongsang provinces, political experts said.

A come-from-behind victory is always an option, but the two rival parties will likely declare a sweeping win in their longtime strongholds, they added.

By Choi Si-young (siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)