South Korean voters headed to the polls to pick a new president, with the two leading candidates vowing to revive an ailing economy and put months of turmoil over a failed martial law attempt in the rearview mirror.
The poll is effectively pitting Liberal front-runner Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party (DP) against conservative rival Kim Moon-soo of the governing People Power Party (PPP).
Tuesday has been designated a public holiday, with voting precincts opening at 6 a.m. local time and due to close at 8 p.m, while South Koreans overseas were allowed to vote early from May 20 to 25.
The snap election was triggered by the ouster of Yoon Suk Yeol, who briefly imposed martial law in December, unsettling many South Koreans who saw the move as a reminder of the country’s authoritarian past.
The winner must face the challenge of stabilizing the country after months of political turmoil that saw Yoon booted from office — fracturing the country along party lines and putting the South Korean economy in a state of limbo.
But the results will also have far-ranging foreign policy implications, including for closer relations with Japan and the U.S., as well as soured ties with China. Depending on the victor, the result could also signal a shift in South Korea’s approach to nuclear-armed North Korea.
Barring an unforeseen development, observers say a victory by Lee — who has consistently led in opinion polls since entering the race — appears all but certain.
Lee, who lost by a razor-thin margin to Yoon Suk Yeol in the 2022 election, held commanding leads in polls throughout the campaign, and remained ahead with 49% support against 35% for Kim Moon, one final opinion poll released by Gallup Korea on May 27 showed. Another right-leaning candidate, the Reform Party’s Lee Jun-seok, received 11% support.
While Kim had eroded a more than 20 percentage point gap with Lee at the start of the campaign on May 12, he failed to convince the Reform Party candidate to back him to avoid splitting the conservative vote.
Exit polls released immediately after polls close could offer clarity about the winner far more quickly than the last presidential election, when the victor remained unknown until the early hours the following day.
The next president — who will take office immediately for a single, five-year term and will not have the advantage of a formal transition, unlike with many prior elections — will instantly face a host of challenges.
First and foremost, he will be expected to tackle a deepening economic downturn and shepherd through tough tariff negotiations with the U.S., which has slapped its South Korean ally with a 25% levy on key exports such as steel, aluminum and automobiles.
In a nationwide survey conducted early last month by the Dong-A Ilbo newspaper, 40.7% of respondents cited “revitalizing the economy and securing future growth engines” as the next president’s most pressing task. Resolving social conflict and promoting national unity was a distant second at 21.7%.
But there’s a host of other challenges the next president will also need to face. These include the country’s rapidly graying society and plummeting birthrate, an urgent demographic crisis also seen in neighboring Japan and China. Young couples and singles commonly complain about the soaring costs of child care, discrimination against working parents and gender inequality.
With women making up 50.5% of South Korea’s 44.39 million eligible voters, the demographic could have a sizable impact on the result despite all of the candidates remaining in the race being men — the first time since 2007 that no women are in the final lineup. South Korea has elected only one female leader: Park Geun-hye, who took office in 2013 and was impeached in 2017.
- Agencies
