A candidate of the minor progressive Jinbo Party has won a parliamentary by-election, giving the party its first-ever seat in the National Assembly.

Candidate Kang Sung-hee won 39.07 percent of votes against independent candidate Rym Chung-yeap, who won 32.11 percent, in the by-election held in the southwestern city of Jeonju, about 190 kilometers south of Seoul, on Wednesday.

Kang, 50, graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul and was an executive member of a labor union of nonregular workers of Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea's leading carmaker.

"I believe Jeonju citizens demonstrated through Jinbo Party's Kang Sung-hee a desire to pass judgment on the prosecution dictatorship of Yoon Suk Yeol and a yearning for new politics," Kang said, expressing gratitude to his supporters.

Jeonju was the only city where a parliamentary by-election was held Wednesday as former Rep. Lee Sang-jik of the main opposition Democratic Party lost the seat in the city after he was sentenced to a suspended prison term last year for violation of the Public Official Election Act.

The Democratic Party did not nominate a candidate for the by-election to take political responsibility.

Aside from the parliamentary seat in Jeonju, eight other seats were up for grabs in Wednesday's by-elections, including one lower-level council head, one superintendent for education, two in provincial and metropolitan councils, and four in lower-level councils. (Yonhap)