Some 44 million South Koreans headed to the polls on Wednesday to choose the country’s next president, capping a race marked by a series of upsets, scandals and smear campaigns.
The winner of the election faces growing challenges, including rising inequality and rising property prices that have weighed on Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
Voters are also looking for a leader who can root out corruption, heal the divided nation and polarized politics, and initiate negotiations to stem the evolving nuclear threat from North Korea.
A total of 14 candidates originally signed up, but it has turned into a close two-way race between Lee Jae-myung, the flag-bearer of the ruling Democratic Party, and Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative opposition People Power Party.
They are fighting to succeed incumbent President Moon Jae-in, who is constitutionally barred from re-election. The winner’s one-time, five-year term begins May 10.
Polls showed a slight advantage for Yoon, who secured a surprise last-minute rebound last week when the People Party’s Ahn Cheol-soo, a Conservative contender who finished a distant third place, dropped out and threw his support behind Yoon.
An Embrain Public poll estimated the merger could yield Yoon 47.4% versus Lee’s 41.5%, while an Ipsos poll put the margin with Ahn at a slightly larger 48.9% to 41.9% for Yoon.
Yoon, a former attorney general, has vowed to fight corruption, promote justice and level the playing field while seeking a harder line on North Korea and a “fresh start” with China.
Lee was governor of the country’s most populous province, Gyeonggi, and became famous for his aggressive response to the coronavirus and his advocacy of universal basic income.
Both candidates’ disapproval ratings matched their popularity, as scandals, mudslinging and gaffes dominated what was described as an “unsympathetic election”.
Yoon had apologized that his wife used an inaccurate resume for teaching jobs years ago. He dismissed Democrats’ accusations that his mother-in-law had made massive profits from land speculation and borrowed tens of billions of won from a bank under investigation by a prosecutor’s office where Yoon worked.
Yoon has also denied allegations from Lee’s campaign that Yoon’s wife worked with a former BMW dealership chairman in South Korea to manipulate company stock prices.
For his part, Lee has apologized for his son’s illegal gambling. He faces a possible criminal investigation over allegations that he illegally hired a provincial employee to be his wife’s personal assistant and that she misused government funds through his company credit cards.
Lee and his wife have apologized for raising public concern and said they would work together on any investigation.
The race has faced a series of disruptions, with the Democratic leader, who led Lee’s campaign, being hospitalized on Monday after a rare assault during a rally.
And amid South Korea’s worst COVID-19 wave, with more than 1 million home treatments, electoral authorities hastily tightened voting procedures for patients on Monday amid furor over early voting irregularities over the weekend.
Add Comment