SEOUL: The left-leaning governing party of South Korea won a landslide victory in the general elections on Wednesday amid the coronavirus pandemic. This gives President Moon Jae-in greater momentum to push for his reform agenda during the remaining two years of tenure. The ruling Democratic Party and its satellite Citizen Party secured 180 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, marking the biggest win since the country introduced the direct presidential election system in 1987. South Korea’s voting system uses a mix of direct and proportional votes. The main opposition United Future Party and its allied Future Korea Party won 103 seats, according to the National Election Commission. Political experts view the key to the ruling party’s absolute win as the coronavirus pandemic, which was anticipated to have a negative impact on the government in the beginning. But the spread of the virus turned the political tide in President Moon’s favor. “It’s difficult to explain why the ruling bloc secured this historic victory without the COVID-19 impact,” said Choi Chang-ryul, a professor of political science at Yongin University in Gyeonggi Province. “It’s certain voters put a priority on supporting Moon’s management of the pandemic crisis despite a slew of scandals involving President Moon’s aides.” The April 15 elections were widely seen as a referendum on Moon in his third year in office after being elected in May 2017. His approval rating plummeted earlier this year in the wake of political scandals over power abuse and sluggish economic growth affected by what opposition parties call socialist economic reform plans. The stalemate over North Korea’s denuclearization was also a disappointment to the public following the North’s continued military provocations, including missile tests. With COVID-19 infections skyrocketing from January, the pandemic crisis was expected to be a blow to the ruling bloc, as the government was faced with harsh criticism over the lack of masks and door-opening to visitors from China, where the respiratory disease originated. But quick and effective handling of the epidemic has changed public sentiment. South Korea’s quick testing methods, including drive-through stations, and reasonable social distancing efforts without full-scale lockdowns, have successfully contained the spread of infections, with fewer than 50 new confirmed cases reported per day for the past week. The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said on Thursday that 22 new cases were detected a day earlier, bringing the nation’s total infections to 10,613. It was the fourth day in a row that new coronavirus cases had hovered below 30, according to the KCDC. “South Korea’s social system has been proved to be effective during this global pandemic crisis,” said political commentator Chin Jung-won, a former professor at Dongyang University, Yeongju, North Gyeognsang Province.” “Among the key factors to the successful response to COVID-19 are the skilled management of the health authorities, technological capacity of producing testing kits, and dedicated efforts by doctors and nurses across the country.” A day after the elections, President Moon pledged he would take more aggressive measures to defeat the virus and minimize the economic fallout. “I feel a sense of heavy responsibility,” the president said on Thursday about the outcome of the parliamentary elections. “I will never be conceited and will listen to the voice of the people in a humbler way.” Main opposition party leader Hwang Kyo-ahn, who was regarded as a conservative presidential hopeful, stepped down to take responsibility for the crushing defeat in the elections. Meanwhile, a high-profile North Korean defector from the main opposition party won a constituency seat, becoming the first person from the North to be chosen directly by South Korean voters. Thae Yong-ho, a former No. 2 diplomat at North Korea’s Embassy in London, was elected to the National Assembly as the United Future Party’s candidate in Seoul’s southern affluent district of Gangnam. Thae received 58.4 percent of the votes on Wednesday in the Gangnam constituency, one of the conservative party’s main strongholds, far ahead of his opponent from the ruling party. “I plan to devote the best of my ability so that our parliament and government can face the reality, and implement sustainable and feasible policies on North Korea,“ Thae said. Thae defected to the South in 2016.