SEOUL: South Korea’s liberal party candidate Lee Jae-myung is projected to win the country’s snap presidential election, according to projections by the country’s broadcasters on Tuesday (Jun 3).
The exit poll has in previous elections mostly been in line with the final results.
Joint exit poll by broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS put Lee on 51.7 per cent and his conservative rival Kim Moon-soo on 39.3 per cent.
A separate poll by broadcaster JTBC put Lee on 50.6 per cent and Kim on 39.4 per cent. Channel A also predicted a Lee win by similar margins.
Around 78 per cent of South Korea’s 44.39 million eligible voters had cast ballots to pick the leader of Asia’s fourth-largest economy, hoping to draw to a close six months of turmoil triggered by a shock martial law briefly imposed by former leader Yoon Suk Yeol.
The vote was “largely viewed as a referendum on the previous administration,” Kang Joo-hyun, a political science professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, told AFP.
“The martial law and impeachment crisis not only swayed moderates but also fractured the conservative base.”
After being impeached by parliament in December, Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court on Apr 4, less than three years into his five-year term, triggering the snap election that now stands to remake South Korea’s political leadership and foreign policies.
Lee had called the election “judgment day” against the previous Yoon administration and the conservative People Power Party, accusing them of having condoned the martial law attempt by not fighting harder to thwart it and even trying to save Yoon’s presidency.
The winner must tackle challenges including a society deeply scarred by divisions made more obvious since the attempt at military rule, and an export-heavy economy reeling from unpredictable protectionist moves by the United States, a major trading partner and a security ally.
If the exit poll’s projection is accurate, Lee should be on course to officially become president when the National Election Commission declares the winner sometime on Wednesday, immediately taking power including becoming commander-in-chief of the military.
South Korean presidents serve a single five-year term.
Lee, who served as governor of Gyeonggi province and mayor of Seongnam city, has been a highly divisive figure in South Korean politics for years.
As a former child laborer known for his inspirational rags-to-riches story, Lee came to fame through biting criticism of the country’s conservative establishment and calls to build a more assertive South Korea in foreign policy.
That rhetoric has given him an image as someone who can institute sweeping reforms and fix the country’s deep-seated economic inequality and corruption.
His critics view him as a dangerous populist who relies on a political division and backpedals on promises too easily.
