<B>EXIT POLLS </B> showed the pro-government Uri Party winning a large majority yesterday in South Korea?s parliamentary election, harvesting a windfall of support for impeached President Roh Moo-hyun.

One exit poll was conducted by KBS and SBS television channels with Media Research and TN Sopress, surveying 60,000 voters in about 100 of the 243 electoral districts. A second exit poll was conducted by MBC television with Korea Research and surveyed some 192,000 voters in 120 constituencies.

The polls showed the Uri Party, which backs Roh, winning up to 172 seats in the 299-seat National Assembly. They put the main opposition Grand National Party on up to 115 seats. Most votes should be counted by about 9 p.m. (1200 GMT). The two-week campaign was dominated by the impeachment of Roh, an emotive issue which overshadowed debate about North Korea?s nuclear threat, high unemployment or plans to send 3,000 troops to Iraq. Uri Party headquarters in Seoul boomed with chants of ?We won, we won? as party leader Chung Dong-young entered triumphantly.

The Uri Party had been widely expected to win a majority in the unicameral parliament, in part through a sympathy vote for Roh. But Chung?s comment early in the campaign suggesting the elderly should not vote was feared to have cost the party support. Chung gave up his own bid for a parliament seat in a last-minute gambit to soothe critics.

Roh, who came to office as a standard bearer for change, was not in the election fray. Many regarded the poll as part of a generation shift for their rags-to-riches country that began when Roh was elected president in December 2002. A 57-year-old former labour lawyer with no university degree, Roh has a down-to-earth style and liberal mindset that differs from his predecessors at the presidential Blue House.

<B>Market friendly?</B>

Parliament impeached him on March 12 for violating an election law by speaking in favour of the Uri Party. His powers have been suspended until a Constitutional Court rules on whether to uphold that vote. Opinion polls showed a majority felt it was ill-judged and a pretext to oust the leader they voted for in the 2002 presidential election.

Roh has said he would treat the parliamentary poll as a vote of confidence in his rule. Foreign investors watched the election because they fear instability in a major US ally on the front line with communist North Korea, which fought a three-year war with the South soon after World War Two and four decades of Japanese occupation. Yesterday was a holiday and markets were closed.

US Vice President Dick Cheney arrived in South Korea from China just before polls closed. He is to meet Acting President Goh Kun on Friday for talks that will cover Iraq and North Korea. There was little to choose between the main parties? economic policies, although foreign investors and Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye say the Uri Party might indulge militant labour and pursue a radical agenda with a majority in parliament.

The Uri Party denies this, saying it is wedded to market economics and greater corporate transparency in a country where family-run «chaebol» conglomerates dominate the business scene.

Voters cast two votes ? one for candidates in 243 districts and one for 56 seats decided by proportional representation.

Martin Nesirky and Paul Eckert