Exit polls revealed that South Korea’s presidential election on Wednesday was too close to call, as voting concluded in a race that could define Asia’s fourth-largest economy for the next five years.
According to an exit poll done jointly by three major networks, conservative Yoon Suk-yeol was marginally ahead of liberal Lee Jae-myung, with 48.4 percent. Another survey conducted by cable network JTBC showed Lee with 48.4 percent of the vote versus Yoon’s 47.7 percent.
The election campaign was tainted by scandals and accusations, but the policy stakes for the 52 million-strong country are enormous.
Around 77 percent of the country’s 44 million eligible voters cast ballots to elect a leader for a country whose global standing is increasing but is driven by gender and generational conflicts and confronted by a belligerent North Korea.
While negotiating an increasingly hostile rivalry between China and the United States, the winner must address difficulties such as South Korea’s worst wave of COVID-19 infections, growing inequality, and surging property prices.
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