South Korea set to break early voting record as presidential election looms
South Korea is set to break a record in early voting as more than 12 million voters cast their ballot in advance of the country's upcoming presidential election.
The figure for early voting – as of midday on Friday – represents more than a quarter of South Korea's 44.3 million eligible voters, according to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency.
Early voting started on Thursday and will end on Friday, in advance of the official vote on Tuesday that will see South Koreans choose who will replace impeached President Yoon Sook-yeol.
Yoon set off a political storm in South Korea in December when he briefly imposed martial law before the controversial move was overturned by the National Assembly.
The ex-president claimed his decision to declare martial law and order the detention of opposition politicians was due to the government's infiltration by antistate and North Korean forces.
Yoon was impeached the same month but was not removed from office until April when South Korea's constitutional court signed off on the impeachment vote.
The last poll before the election placed the Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung as the frontrunner with 42.9 percent support, followed by Kim Moon-soo from Yoon's conservative People Power Party with 36.8 percent, according to Yonhap.
The candidates were trailed in a distant third place by the conservative New Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok, who held just 10.3 percent of support.
The vote is expected to bring an end to months of political turmoil in South Korea, where a polarised public has mobilised both for and against the impeached Yoon.
South Korean police reported an uptick in vandalism of campaign materials and said this week they had apprehended at least 690 people over related incidents, according to Yonhap.
Frontrunner Lee told the media he has been wearing a bulletproof vest and installed bulletproof glass at campaign rallies following threats on his life.
Police also said this week they had counted 11 cases of social media posts threatening Lee, and one threatening to kill the New Reform Party's candidate.
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Al Jazeera
6 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
South Korea's presidential election aims to restore democratic credentials
Seoul, South Korea – After six hours of emergency martial law, hundreds of days of protests, violence at a Seoul court and the eventual impeachment of President Yoon Suk-yeol, South Korea is now hours away from choosing a new leader in the hope of restoring stability to an unsettled nation. From 6am to 8pm on Tuesday (21:00 to 11:00 GMT), South Koreans will vote for one of five presidential candidates in a race led largely by the opposition Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung. He is followed in the polls by the governing People Power Party candidate Kim Moon-soo. The election – involving 44.39 million eligible voters – is expected to see either of these two top contenders replace Yoon. The expelled former president last week attended his fifth court hearing where he faces charges of leading an insurrection and abusing power due to his failed imposition of martial law on December 3. If convicted, Yoon could face a maximum penalty of life in prison or even the death sentence. Participation in the election is predicted to be at an all-time high amid the political turmoil resulting from the brief imposition of military rule, which still resonates in every corner of society and has sharply divided the country along political lines. There are those who still support Yoon and those who vehemently oppose his martial law decision. The Democratic Party's Lee is currently the clear frontrunner, with Gallup Korea's latest poll on May 28 placing his support at 49 percent, compared with People Power Party Kim's 36 percent, as the favourite to win. Early voting, which ended on Friday, had the second-highest voter turnout in the country's history, at 34.74 percent, while overseas voting from 118 countries reached a record high of 79.5 percent. In the last presidential election in 2022, Yoon narrowly edged out Lee in the closest presidential contest in South Korea's history. After his crushing defeat in 2022 to a voting margin of just 0.73 percentage points, Lee now has another chance at the top office, and to redeem his political reputation. About a month ago, South Korea's Supreme Court determined that Lee had spread falsehoods during his 2022 presidential bid in violation of election law. In addition to surviving a series of bribery charges during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province, which he claimed were politically motivated, Lee also survived a stabbing attack to his neck during a news conference in Busan last year. Fortunately for Lee, the courts have agreed to postpone further hearings of his ongoing trials until after the election. On the campaign trail this time around, Lee addressed his supporters from behind bulletproof glass, with snipers positioned on rooftops, scanning the crowds for potential threats, as counterterrorism units patrolled on foot. Lee has also been joined on his campaign by conservative lawmakers, his former opponents, who have publicly supported his run for office numerous times during the past month, seeing him as a path back to political stability. People Power Party candidate Kim was served an especially hard blow when his parliamentary colleague, Kim Sang-wook, defected from the party in early May to join Lee's Democratic Party. According to polling data from South Korea's leading media outlet Hankyoreh, only 55 percent of conservative voters who supported Yoon in the 2022 election said they would back the People Power Party's Kim this time around. While such shifts represent the crisis that the mainstream conservative party is facing after the political fallout from Yoon's botched martial law plan and removal from office, it also testifies to Lee's appeal to both moderate and conservative voters. 'The events of the martial law, insurrection attempt and impeachment process have dealt a heavy blow to our democracy,' said Lim Woon-taek, a sociology professor at Keimyung University and a former member of the Presidential Commission on Policy Planning. 'So, the new president will receive a heavy burden when assuming the president's seat,' Lim told Al Jazeera. Youth unemployment, social inequality and climate change have also become pressing issues that Yoon's administration failed to tackle. According to recent research, South Korea's non-regular workers, including contract employees and part-timers, accounted for 38 percent of all wage and salary workers last year. Lee has promised to champion business-friendly policies, and concentrate on investment in research and development and artificial intelligence, while refraining from focusing on divisive social issues such as the gender wars. His stance has shifted considerably from his time moving up the political ranks when he promoted left-wing ideas, such as a universal basic income. Events on the night of the declaration of martial law on December 3, also helped cement Lee's image as a political freedom fighter. A former human rights lawyer, Lee was livestreamed scaling the walls of the National Assembly as the military surrounded the compound, where he rallied fellow legislators to vote and strike down Yoon's decision to mobilise the military. Among Lee's most central campaign pledges has been his promise to bring to justice those involved in Yoon's martial law scheme and tighten controls on a future president's ability to do the same. Lee also wants to see a constitutional amendment that would allow presidents to serve two four-year terms, a change from the current single-term five years. While Lee's closest challenger, Kim, has agreed on such policies and made sure to distance himself from Yoon, the former labour-activist-turned-hardline-conservative has also said the former president's impeachment went too far. The election also unfolds as United States President Donald Trump has proposed a series of tariffs on key South Korean exports such as steel, semiconductors and automobiles. In the face of those threats, Lee has promised to stimulate demand and growth, while Kim has promised to ease business regulations. Kim also emphasised his plan to hold an immediate summit meeting with Trump to discuss the tariffs. Lee, on the other hand, has promised a more pragmatic foreign policy agenda which would maintain relations with the US administration but also prioritise 'national interests', such as bridging closer relations with neighbouring China and Russia. On North Korea, Lee is determined to ease tensions that have risen to unprecedented heights in recent years, while Kim has pledged to build up the country's military capability to counter Pyongyang, and wants stronger security support from the US. Lee has also promised to relocate the National Assembly and the presidential office from Seoul to Sejong City, which would be designated as the country's new administrative capital, continuing a process of city-planning rebalancing that has met a series of setbacks in recent years. Another major issue that Keimyung University's Lim hopes the future leader will focus more on is the climate situation. 'Our country is considered a climate villain, and we will face future restrictions in our exports if we don't address the immediate effects of not keeping limits on the amount of our hazardous outputs,' Lim said. 'The future of our country will really rest on this one question: whether the next president will draw out such issues like the previous administration or face the public sphere and head straight into the main issues that are deteriorating our society.' The results of Tuesday's vote are expected to emerge either late on Tuesday or in the early hours of Wednesday morning. In the 2022 election, Yoon was proclaimed the winner at 4:40am the morning after election day. With Lee the clear frontrunner in this election, the outcome could be evident as early as Tuesday night. But enhanced surveillance at polling stations this year due to concerns raised about counting errors may be a factor in slowing down any early announcement of the country's next president.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
South Korea's snap presidential election 2025: All you need to know
Voters in South Korea are choosing a new president to replace Yoon Suk-yeol who was impeached and removed from office over his brief and ill-fated martial law bid in December. The snap election on June 3 is pivotal, with implications for South Korea's democratic future, as well as its ties with China, the United States and its nuclear armed neighbour, North Korea. The winner – who will serve a single term of five-years – faces the task of addressing the fallout from the martial law decree, which lasted six hours but unleashed political chaos, including mass protests, a riot at a court and three caretaker leaders in six months. The new president will also have to tackle a deepening economic downturn and manage tariff negotiations with the US, which has imposed a 25 percent levy on key exports such as steel, aluminium and automobiles. Here's what you need to know about the June 3 poll: There are six candidates on the ballot, but the main contenders are Lee Jae-myung of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DP), and Kim Moon-soo of the governing conservative People Power Party (PPP). Lee, 61, a human rights lawyer-turned-politician, is the clear frontrunner. A Gallup Korea poll on May 28 showed 49 percent of respondents favoured the liberal candidate, while 36 percent said they would vote for Kim, 73, a staunch conservative who served as labour minister in Yoon's government. Trailing in third place is Lee Jun-seok of the conservative New Reform Party, at 9 botched martial law bid has cast a shadow over the race. It put Lee, who lost the last election to Yoon in 2022, back on track for the presidency. The leader of the opposition was instrumental in foiling the president's plan. On December 3, when Yoon declared martial law – in a bid to quash the Democratic Party-dominated parliament, which he portrayed as 'anti-state' and a 'den of criminals' – Lee rushed to the National Assembly and climbed the walls of the building to avoid the hundreds of armed troops deployed there. He livestreamed his exploit, urging supporters to come to the parliament and prevent the arrest of legislators. Despite the troop blockades, enough legislators managed to make it to the parliament and vote to end martial law. The assembly went on to impeach Yoon on December 14. 'This election would not have happened if not for the declaration of martial law by Yoon Suk-yeol and his impeachment,' said Youngshik Bong, research fellow at Yonsei University in Seoul. 'These issues have sucked in all others like a vortex. Everything else is marginal.' On the campaign trail, Lee has pledged to bring to justice anyone involved in Yoon's failed bid and has also promised to introduce tighter controls on the president's ability to declare martial the opposition leader, has also proposed constitutional changes to introduce a four-year, two-term presidency – at the moment, South Korean presidents are only allowed a single term of five years. Lee has also argued for a run-off system for presidential elections, whereby if no candidate secures 50 percent of the popular vote, the top two candidates take on each other in a second round. 'A four-year, two-term presidency would allow for a midterm evaluation of the administration, reinforcing responsibility,' he wrote on Facebook, calling for a constitutional amendment to enable the change. 'Meanwhile, adopting a run-off election system would enhance the legitimacy of democratic governance and help reduce unnecessary social conflict.' The PPP's Kim has accepted Lee's proposals for a constitutional amendment to allow a two-term presidency, but has suggested shortening each term to three martial law bid, however, has left the PPP in crisis and disarray. Infighting plagued the embattled party as it tried to choose the impeached president's successor. Although Kim won the party primary, its leaders tried to replace him with former Prime Minister Han Duck-soo. On the eve of the party's campaign launch, they cancelled Kim's candidacy, only to reinstate him after party members opposed the move. Bong, at Yonsei University, said the infighting as well as divisions in the conservative camp over Yoon's decree has cost it support. 'Kim Moon-soo has not set his position clearly on the martial law declaration,' Bong said. 'He has not distanced himself from the legacy of Yoon, but at the same time, he has not made it clear whether he believes the declaration of martial law was a violation of the constitution. So the PPP has not really had enough energy to mobilise its support bases.' Still, Kim appears to have eroded what was a more than 20 percent point gap with Lee at the start of the campaign. But he has failed to convince the third placed contender – Lee Jun-seok – to abandon his bid and back the PPP to improve its chances. The New Reform Party's Lee, who is 40 years old, said on Tuesday there would be 'no candidate merger' with 'those responsible for the emergency martial law'. Although policy debates have taken a backseat, the outcome of the election could reorient South Korea's approach towards North Korea. The two neighbours are technically in a state of war as the Korean War of 1950-1953 ended in an armistice rather than a peace treaty, and ties between them are at a new low. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has called for rewriting his country's constitution to scrap the longstanding goal of unifying the war-divided nations and described Seoul as an 'invariable principal enemy'. Pyongyang has also severed communication lines, and the two countries have clashed over balloons and drones carrying rubbish and propaganda. Lee of the Democratic Party has promised to ease tensions if elected, including by restoring a military hotline, and committed to maintaining the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons from the Korean Peninsula. Kim, however, has backed Yoon's hardline approach, promising to secure 'pre-emptive deterrence' through tools such as ballistic missiles and the redeployment of US tactical nuclear weapons. He has said he would also seek a path for the country to pursue nuclear armament by securing the right to reprocess nuclear fuel, a key step towards building atomic weapons. The two candidates also differ in their approach to the US, the country's most important security ally, and to China, its biggest trading partner. Lee, who espouses what he calls a pragmatic foreign policy, has said it is crucial to maintain South Korea's alliance with the US and pursue security cooperation with Japan. However, he has pledged to prioritise 'national interests' and said there's 'no need to unnecessarily antagonise China or Russia'.Kim, meanwhile, has questioned Lee's commitment to the US-South Korea alliance, and has promised to hold an immediate summit meeting with US President Donald Trump if elected to discuss tariffs. 'I have a very friendly and trusting relationship,' with the US leader, Kim has said. He has also indicated a willingness to discuss sharing more of the cost of stationing US troops in the country, something Trump has demanded for years. Lee Sung-yoon, board member of the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, described the policy differences between the rival camps as 'immutable' and referred to earlier comments by the Democratic Party's Lee, because of which some view him as being soft on China and Russia. 'In the past, Lee has said South Korea should not get involved in China's posture towards Taiwan, and just say thank you to both Beijing and Taiwan and stay out of the conflict. He has said of the trilateral defensive drills among US, Japan and South Korea as 'a defence disaster' and an 'extremely pro-Japanese act'. And more than once he has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy incited Russia to invade because he was a political novice who said unfortunate things.' The analyst said Lee has – over the course of the election campaign – tried to walk back some of his statements in a bid to appeal to more moderate voters. However, 'I would venture to guess that people sitting in the councils of power in Washington, DC, or Tokyo or in Kyiv, Ukraine, are not overly jubilant at the prospect of a Lee administration,' he said. Koreans overseas have already cast their ballots, and early voting took place on Thursday and Friday. Large numbers of people turned out for the early vote, including the two frontrunners. According to the National Election Commission, some 44.4 million people in the country of 52 million are eligible to vote. On election day, which is a public holiday, polling stations will open at 6am (22:00 GMT) and close at 8pm (20:00 GMT). Counting will begin immediately and the winner will be known that evening or in the early hours of the following day. The candidate who receives the most votes will be deemed the winner, even if they don't win 50 percent of the votes.
Al Jazeera
2 days ago
- Al Jazeera
US defence chief warns of China threat as Beijing's top brass skip summit
Singapore – Of the many military officials darting across the lobby of Singapore's Shangri-La Hotel this weekend, there has been one significant absence. China's Defence Minister Dong Jun skipped the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's premier security forum, with Beijing sending a delegation of lower-ranking representatives instead. It was the first time since 2019 that China has not dispatched its defence minister to the high-level dialogue on regional defence, except when the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing's decision raised eyebrows in Singapore, coming at a time of heightened tensions between China and the United States – the world's two biggest superpowers. Dong's absence meant there was no face-to-face meeting with his US counterpart, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, who had the floor to himself on Saturday when he told the defence forum that the military threat posed by China was potentially imminent. 'It has to be clear to all that Beijing is credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power in the Indo-Pacific,' Hegseth told delegates in Singapore. Pointing to China's regular military drills around Taiwan as well as increasingly frequent skirmishes in the South China Sea, Hegseth said Beijing was proactively harassing its neighbours. 'There's no reason to sugar-coat it. The threat China poses is real, and it could be imminent,' Hegseth said. He also pointed to China's growing military assertiveness as a reason for Asian nations to boost their defence spending, pointing to Germany, which has pledged to move towards spending 5 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defence. 'It doesn't make sense for countries in Europe to do that while key allies in Asia spend less on defence in the face of an even more formidable threat,' Hegseth said. The defence chief also looked to reassure Asian allies that Washington was committed to Asia Pacific security despite strained ties in recent months as US President Donald Trump targeted some close allies with hefty trade tariffs. 'America is proud to be back in the Indo-Pacific, and we're here to stay,' he said, opening his speech. Some analysts were quick to play down the severity of Hegseth's warnings about China. 'Short of a very few countries, not many in this part of the world see China as an imminent threat and would up their [defence] spending,' said Dylan Loh, assistant professor in the public policy and global affairs programme at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. In previous years, the Shangri-La Dialogue had provided a rare platform for meetings between Chinese and US officials in the more informal surroundings that the summit could offer. The structure of the schedule also allowed Beijing's military chiefs to directly respond to the keynote speech from the US defence secretary and to present their narrative to other members of the Asia Pacific. Beijing has remained tight-lipped on the reason for Defence Minister Dong's absence from the forum, fuelling an information void that has been filled by speculation. One theory is that China did not want to send a high-profile delegate to the event at such a sensitive time as Beijing navigates the tariff war with the Trump administration. 'Any sort of faux pas or comments that may go off script can be picked up and picked apart or misconstrued,' said Loh, of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University. 'So the question is why take the risk when US-China relations are at a very delicate point at this moment,' Loh told Al Jazeera. The Shangri-La Dialogue weekend has not always been the easiest occasion for Chinese defence ministers. In recent years, they have faced difficult questions from their counterparts in other countries, who are unhappy with Beijing's increasing assertiveness in the Asia Pacific region. Loh said this could be another factor in Dong's absence from the high-profile event. 'Any Chinese defence minister coming to Singapore now will be exposing himself and the country to political risk,' he said. 'Themes like the South China Sea and possibly Taiwan will emerge, which makes China a convenient target,' Loh added. Dong was appointed as China's defence minister in late 2023, after his predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed from office. Less than a year into the job, there was speculation surrounding Dong's new position following media reports that he was under investigation as part of a wider investigation into corruption in the Chinese military. Beijing denied the reports, with the minister continuing to maintain a public profile despite the allegations. There has also been intense scrutiny of China's military, following reports of an apparent purge of top-level officials by President Xi Jinping. One of Beijing's most senior generals, He Weidong, was missing from a high-profile political meeting in April, adding to rumours surrounding a possible restructuring in the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Ian Chong, a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie China research centre, said such speculation could be a factor in Dong's no-show in Singapore. 'Because of the domestic turmoil with China's senior military, they perhaps don't want to, or the PLA itself feels that it's not in a position to send somebody senior,' Chong told Al Jazeera. Announcing Dong's absence at a news conference before the summit, Chinese military spokesperson Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang maintained that communication channels were still open between defence officials in Washington and Beijing. 'China places great importance on US-China military ties, and is open to communication at different levels,' Zhang said.
