Centre-left candidate Lee Jae-in is winning South Korea’s presidential election by a huge margin after months of political chaos, exit polls showed on Tuesday, with voter turnout the highest in nearly three decades.
The exit poll, conducted by South Korea’s three leading broadcasters, showed Li of the leftist Democratic Party won 51.7 per cent of the vote. The poll showed that challenger Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People’s Power Party (PPP) was backed by 39.3 per cent of voters.
For weeks, major polls have shown Lee well ahead of Kim, the labour minister of former leader Yoon Seok-yol.
Some 35.24 million voters (79.4 per cent) cast ballots, the highest turnout since the 1997 election when turnout was 80.7 per cent, according to the National Election Commission.
South Korea’s next leader will take office almost immediately – as soon as the National Election Commission finishes counting the votes and approves the results, likely Wednesday morning.
Early voting for the election was held on 29 May.
South Korea’s previous president, Yoon Seok-yeol, went on trial on 14 April for imposing martial law. He is accused of attempted mutiny. He denies it.
Yoon was previously formally removed from office after lawmakers impeached him for his attempt on 3 December to “undermine civilian rule, resulting in armed soldiers being sent to parliament.”
On 1 May, South Korea’s acting president, South Korean Prime Minister Han Dok-soo, announced his resignation.