Lee Jae-myung of the left-leaning Democratic Party is on track to win South Korea's presidential election by a landslide, exit polls showed on Tuesday, June 3, with turnout high after months of political chaos.
Six months to the day after ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into crisis with his disastrous declaration of martial law, an exit poll by South Korea's three major broadcasters showed Lee with 51.7% of the vote. Conservative challenger Kim Moon-soo was on track to win 39.3%, the poll showed. After months of turmoil and a revolving door of lame-duck acting leaders, many South Koreans were eager for the country to move forward, with major polls for weeks putting Lee well ahead of Kim.
South Korea's next leader will take office almost immediately – as soon as the National Election Commission finishes counting the votes and validates the result, likely early Wednesday. He will face a bulging in-tray, including global trade vicissitudes chafing the export-driven economy, some of the world's lowest birth rates and an emboldened North Korea rapidly expanding its military arsenal. But the fallout from Yoon's martial law declaration, which has left South Korea effectively leaderless for the first months of US President Donald Trump's tumultuous second term, was the decisive factor in the election, experts said.
Conservative candidate Kim – Yoon's labor minister – failed to convince a third-party candidate, Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party, to unify and avoid splitting the right-wing vote. Yoon's impeachment over his martial law bid, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament, made him the second straight conservative president to be stripped of office after Park Geun-hye in 2017.
At the National Assembly, Democratic Party officials were gathered in a situation room, with a row of televisions set up to watch exit polls and vote counting. Applause and cheers filled the room when exit polls were announced, placing Lee far ahead of rival Kim, with chants of "Lee Jae-myung" immediately breaking out and echoing through the room.
Turnout was high, running at around 77.8% by late afternoon, officials said – the highest in nearly two decades, as many South Koreans sought to draw a line under the six months of martial law-linked turmoil. Ballot counting stations swung into action after polls closed at 8 pm local time, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reporters saw, with boxes of ballots arriving at the Seoul National University Gymnasium in Gwanak-gu district.
On election day, Seoul streets were peaceful as people made the most of good weather and a public holiday, but police issued the highest level of alert and deployed thousands of officers to ensure the election and inauguration Wednesday proceed smoothly. The DP's Lee – who survived an assassination attempt last year – has been campaigning in a bullet-proof vest and delivering speeches behind a glass protective shield.
South Korean presidents serve a single five-year term.