South Korea’s liberal party candidate Lee Jae-myung is expected to win the country’s snap presidential election, according to projections by the country’s broadcasters on Tuesday.
Reuters has not independently confirmed the results of the joint exit poll by broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS, which put Lee on 51.7 per cent and his conservative rival Kim Moon-soo on 39.3 per cent.
The exit poll has in previous elections mostly been in line with the final results.
A separate poll by broadcaster JTBC put Lee at 50.6 per cent and Kim at 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.
After being impeached by parliament in December, Yoon was removed from office by the Constitutional Court on April 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 stated during his campaign that he would pursue a “pragmatic foreign policy focused on national interests, anchored by a strong alliance with the United States.”
