94Ha Viewpoint
The official voting for the 21st presidential election in South Korea began at 6:00 a.m. on June 3rd local time. Voting will end at 8:00 p.m. on the same day, and the counting of votes will begin at around 8:30 p.m.
There were originally seven people registered as presidential candidates this year, but the winner will most likely be decided between 60-year-old Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung and 73-year-old National Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo. Liberty United Party candidate Choo Joo-wa and independent candidate Hwang Kyo-ahn announced their withdrawal and expressed support for Kim Moon-soo.
The last poll results before the election released by the polling agency Realmeter on May 28 showed that Lee Jae-myung led with 49.2% support, but the advantage further narrowed, with Kim Moon-soo at 36.8%. On the same day, according to the poll results of the Korea Public Opinion Research Institute, Lee Jae-myung’s support rate was 49.3%, 12.7 percentage points ahead of Kim Moon-soo.
Entering the final sprint, Lee Jae-myung and Kim Moon-soo began to criticize each other.
While accusing Kim Moon-soo of being an accomplice of Yoon Seok-yeol’s emergency martial law and warning him that he would continue the wrong policies of the Yoon Seok-yeol government if he came to power, Lee Jae-myung promised not to engage in political revenge after being elected. Kim Moon-soo accused Lee Jae-myung of being a “criminal boss” with multiple criminal lawsuits and warned him that he would control the judicial system to exonerate himself after taking office.
He also announced his diplomatic and security policy commitments on social media on the 26th, saying that China is an important trading partner of South Korea and a country that has an impact on the security of the Korean Peninsula, and if he wins, he will stabilize the relationship between South Korea and China. When participating in a campaign event in Daegu last month, Lee Jae-myung said that South Korea’s national interests should be the center, and relations with China, Russia and other countries should be maintained to promote economic and trade exchanges.
The 7th Criminal Trial Division of the Seoul High Court has accepted Lee Jae-myung’s application to postpone the first hearing date of his retrial of the case involving violation of the Public Office Election Act to June 18. Analysis pointed out that if Lee Jae-myung is elected president, whether the court can continue to hear his case of violation of the Public Office Election Act depends on how to define the scope of “criminal prosecution”.
In addition, the South Korean Constitution provides for the immunity of the South Korean president from criminal prosecution. Unless the incumbent president initiates civil unrest or treason, the South Korean courts should suspend criminal prosecution against him during his term of office.
Kim Moon-soo is a legendary figure in the first generation of South Korea’s labor movement. He was expelled from Seoul University for participating in labor movements and anti-military government movements, and was arrested and imprisoned. But he began to turn right in the 1990s and has now become a representative of the extreme right. At last year’s congressional personnel hearing, he said that Korean ancestors who lived during the Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula were “Japanese nationals”, which triggered strong protests from all walks of life in South Korea.
The early voting rate held from May 29 to 30 reached 34.74%. The earlier voting rate of overseas citizens was 79.5%, setting a record since South Korea implemented the overseas citizen voting system in 2012.
Yoon Seok-yeol’s impeachment has had a profound impact on South Korea’s international image and diplomatic relations. Its domestic stability and the new government’s foreign policy orientation have attracted international attention. The unprecedented enthusiasm of the South Korean people seems to be more unfavorable to the ruling People’s Power Party.
According to a person from the Central Election Commission of South Korea, the progress of the vote counting will be affected by the turnout rate, the vote rate of candidates and the situation of the ballot counting. It is expected that the preliminary results will be obtained around midnight on the 4th local time.
Since this election is an unplanned early election, the chairman of the committee will convene a plenary meeting of the committee immediately after the vote counting is completed to vote on the result proposal. The winner will officially obtain the presidential power and start his term at around 7 am local time on the 4th. At that time, the inherent powers of the president, including the military commander, will be automatically transferred from Acting President Lee Ju-ho to the new president.
