Hyonhee Shin

SEOUL (Reuters). -The South Korean people voted Wednesday for a president to shape Asia’s fourth largest economy. He will face North Korea with aggression and help the country rise in international standing.

The election was full of surprises, scandals, and smears. But the stakes for 52 million people in the country and the person they elect for their next five-years as president are very high.

There are many challenges facing the winner, including dealing with the devastating effects of South Korea’s COVID-19 infection wave, increasing inequality, surging housing prices and managing the growing tension between China and America.

Voters want a leader capable of tackling corruption and initiating negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear ambitions.

This contest looks like a two-way race between Lee Jaemyung, who is the standard-bearer for the Democratic Party and Yoon Suk-yeol of the conservative People Power Party.

The two are competing to replace President Moon Jae In, who is prohibited by law from running for re-election.

For a party in crisis after its 2017 election held in the early hours after President Park Geun-hye was impeached and dismissed, a win by the conservatives would be a stunning turnaround.

Moon’s Liberal Democratic Party is fighting for his agenda and to ward off Yoon’s threats to investigate the corruption in Yoon’s outgoing presidency if he’s elected.

Park and the two previous presidents were also imprisoned shortly after their exit from office. Moon does not face any allegations of wrongdoing but there were many corruption scandals in his administration.

Last week’s polls showed Yoon with a slight advantage. Yoon also received a surprising boost from a third conservative who dropped out of the race and gave Yoon his support.

In the absence opinion polls, Yoon’s group said Monday it anticipated winning with a 10% margin. Lee’s team, however, predicted that it would win by only 1-2%.

More than 61% of the approximately 44 million eligible voters in America had already cast their ballots by Wednesday afternoon, according to election officials. The record number of early voters, who began voting on Friday, is also included in this figure.

SWING VOTERS

Yoon is a former prosecutor-general and has promised to fight corruption, foster justice, create a more level playing ground, as well as seek a stronger line toward North Korea and a reset with China.

Lee, the governor of Gyeonggi was the most populous provincial. He became famous for his advocacy for universal basic income and aggressive coronavirus response.

As scandals, mudslinging, and gaffes overtook what was called the “unlikeable electoral process”, both candidates had disapproval ratings that matched their popularity.

Young voters, who initially backed Moon, then became disillusioned about economic problems and corruption scandals were seen as an important bloc.

Lee Sung-jin (33) said he’d heard people in their 20s/30s turn out to be very important.

As he cast his votes in Seoul, he stated that “the current problems facing young people regarding housing and employment are grave” but did not give any specifics.

COVID-19 – VOTING

South Korea recorded a record number of COVID-19 new cases every day on Wednesday, but it has not been registered as an electoral issue. There is some discussion about how to compensate residents.

On Monday, more than 1,000,000 COVID sufferers were able to vote at home. This was amid chaos over early voting irregularities.

Some election workers took ballots from infected voters to collect in plastic bags and plastic buckets for Saturday’s early voting. Some voters also reported that they received papers that were already used.

Although there were no signs of foul play, officials said that the chaos could threaten South Korea’s 35-year history of democratic elections with tight and transparent voting.

Already, the race has been subject to a variety of interruptions.

A South Korean man attacked Lee with a hammer in a rare act of violence during an election.