Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon saw the clouds that loomed over his political career all but disappear Friday. An appellate court acquitted the five-term mayor of violating the Political Funds Act over allegations that a supporter paid for his opinion polling. Had the ruling not been overturned and he had been slapped with a fine of 1 million won ($755) or more, Oh would have been unseated and barred from running for elected office for five years. The mayor wore a broad smile, just like when he was reelected in the June 3 local elections. His fifth-term win was unexpected, bumping up the prospects of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP). A Supreme Court ruling is pending, but the appellate court's reversal in itself speaks of a brighter political future for Oh and the PPP on the path to the 2030 presidential election. A Realmeter survey released Monday showed that support for the PPP stood at 42.6 percent compared to the 36 percent of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), with the gap between the two larger than the 6.6-percentage-point margin of error. In July, a local court found