Yoon Suk-yeol won the election in South Korea

Yoon Suk-yeol of the People’s Power Party has won presidential elections in South Korea. Yoon, conservative and opponent of outgoing president Moon, just overtook his opponent Lee Jay-myung of the center-left party (the same as Moon), who at 98 percent of the vote with almost 270 thousand disadvantage votes declared their defeat.

The polling stations for presidential elections in South Korea had opened at 6 am and closed at 6 pm, 10 am in Italy. There were 12 presidential candidates, but already according to the polls carried out before the vote it was clear that the favorites would be Lee and Yoon. THE primi exit poll they had given Yoon a slight advantage.

In Wednesday’s elections, 44 million of South Korea’s roughly 52 million people were eligible to vote, and more than 16 million votes had already been cast in last week’s early voting. At the close of the polls, turnout was 75.6 per cent, slightly lower than in the last presidential elections. The results will be confirmed by the National Electoral Commission on Thursday morning. The new president will be sworn in on 10 May and will remain in office until 9 May 2027.

As the South Korean newspaper wrote in English Korea TimesWednesday’s elections were widely described as the worst in the country’s history, as well as those in which voters would have chosen “the lesser evil».

Yoon was a major critic of Moon’s presidency and served as the country’s attorney general, helping to have prominent people arrested in some major corruption cases, including the head of Samsung. Lee Jae-yong and former South Korean President Park Geun-hye, deposed with a vote of impeachment in 2017. Lee of the Democratic Party is a human rights activist and formerly governor of Gyeonggi, the largest province in South Korea.

During their respective election campaigns, both Lee and Yoon and their families were accused of corruption, nepotism and sexism.

Yoon He said than the former South Korean general and dictator Chun Doo-hwan “He had governed well, except for the coup”; in 2021 his mother had been sentenced and three and a half years in prison for scam, while his wife, Kim Keon-hee, had done controversial comments on women who report sexual abuse and violence in the #MeToo movement (saying that these cases happen “when men don’t pay”).

Lee, on the other hand, was accused of favoring a construction company during a public tender for a residential project and his wife, Kim Hye-kyung, was accused of using public funds for private spending when he was governor of Gyeonggi.

South Korea’s constitution provides for the president to remain in office for five years and prevents running for a second term.

Yoon will face rather complex situations, such as the huge rise in house prices and the demographic crisis that has led to labor shortages in agriculture and small businesses, but also large wage inequalities, few opportunities for young people and growing discrimination towards women and foreigners. One of the most complicated issues to manage will also be the relationship with neighboring North Korea, which Moon he had tried to solve at all costs.

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