South Koreans vote for new president after tight and bitter election race

South Koreans were voting for a new president on Wednesday, with an outspoken liberal ruling party candidate and a conservative former prosecutor considered the favourites in a tight race that has aggravated domestic divisions.

Pre-election surveys showed liberal Lee Jae-myung, an ex-governor of South Korea’s most populous Gyeonggi province, and his main conservative challenger, former prosecutor-general Yoon Suk Yeol, with neck-and-neck support, way ahead of 10 other contenders.

The winner will take office in May and serve a single five-year term as leader of the world’s 10th-largest economy.

Mr Lee and Mr Yoon conducted one of the most bitter political campaigns in recent memory.

Both recently agreed that if they won they would not carry out politically motivated investigations against the other, but many believe the losing candidate could still face criminal probes over some of the scandals in which they are implicated.

Critics say neither candidate has presented a clear strategy on how they would ease the threat from North Korea and its nuclear weapons.

They also say voters are sceptical about how both would handle international relations amid the US-China rivalry and how they would address widening economic inequality and runaway housing prices.

“Despite the significance of this year’s election, the race has centred too much on negative campaigning,” said Jang Seung-Jin, a professor at Seoul’s Kookmin University, adding that neither leading candidate laid out a convincing blueprint on how they would lead South Korea.

The election comes as South Korea has been grappling with a Covid-19 surge driven by the Omicron variant. On Wednesday, South Korea’s health authorities reported 342,446 new virus cases, another record high.

After voting began at 6am, mask-wearing voters waited in long queues at some polling stations before putting on vinyl gloves or using hand sanitiser to cast ballots. People infected with coronavirus were to vote after regular polling ended on Wednesday evening.

About 44 million South Koreans aged 18 or older are eligible to vote, out of the country’s 52 million people. About 16 million cast ballots during early voting last week.

Turnout was more than 60% seven hours into voting on Wednesday, when including early voting ballots, the National Election Commission said.

Election officials said vote-counting may take longer than usual because of the extended voting time for Covid patients and that the winner may not be clear until early Thursday.

Ahead of the vote, Jeong Eun-yeong, a 48-year-old Seoul resident, said she was agonising over which candidate is “the lesser of two evils”.

“Nobody around me seems happy about voting” for either Mr Lee or Mr Yoon, she said. “We need a leader who would be really devoted to improving the lives of working-class citizens.”

While both candidates share some similar economic and welfare policies, they have clashed over North Korea and other foreign policy issues.

Mr Lee, who has often expressed nationalistic views, is calling for exemptions to UN sanctions so that dormant inter-Korean economic projects can be revived, and hopes to mediate between Pyongyang and Washington over the North Korean nuclear crisis.

Mr Yoon has said he will sternly deal with North Korean provocations and seek to boost trilateral security co-operation with Washington and Tokyo.

On confrontation between Washington, Seoul’s top military ally, and Beijing, its biggest trading partner, Mr Lee said picking a side would pose a greater security threat to South Korea. Mr Yoon wants to place a priority on an enhanced alliance with the United States.

After North Korea’s latest reported ballistic missile launch on Saturday, Mr Yoon accused North Korean leader Kim Jong Un of trying to influence the results of the South Korean election in favour of Mr Lee.

“I would (teach) him some manners and make him come to his senses completely,” he told a rally near Seoul.

Mr Lee wrote on Facebook that he will push for a diplomatic solution to North Korean nuclear tensions but will not tolerate any act that would raise animosity.

South Korea’s constitution limits a president to a single five-year term, so Mr Lee’s party colleague, President Moon Jae-in, cannot seek re-election.

Mr Moon came to power in 2017 after conservative president Park Geun-hye was impeached and ousted from office over a huge corruption scandal.

With conservatives initially in shambles after Ms Park’s fall, Mr Moon’s approval rating at one point hit 83% as he pushed hard to achieve reconciliation with North Korea and delve into alleged corruption by past conservative leaders.

He eventually faced a strong backlash as talks on North Korea’s nuclear programme faltered and his anti-corruption drive raised questions of fairness.

Mr Yoon had been Mr Moon’s prosecutor-general but resigned and joined the opposition last year following infighting over probes of Mr Moon’s allies. Mr Yoon said those investigations were objective and principled, but Mr Moon’s supporters said he was trying to thwart Mr Moon’s prosecution reforms and elevate his own political standing.

Mr Yoon’s critics have also attacked him over a lack of experience in party politics, foreign policy and other key state affairs. He has responded that he would let experienced officials handle state affairs that require expertise.

Mr Lee, a former human rights lawyer who entered local politics in 2005, has established an image as a tough-speaking, anti-elitist who can get things done and fix establishment politics, but his opponents call him a dangerous populist relying on divisions and demonising opponents.

Mr Yoon has launched a political offensive against Mr Lee over allegations that he is a key figure in a corrupt land development project launched in the city of Seongnam when he was mayor there. Mr Lee has tried to link Mr Yoon to that scandal. Both of their wives have offered public apologies over separate scandals.

Some experts say that whoever wins is likely to struggle to bridge conservative-liberal divisions.

“Both candidates have failed to create their own, distinctive images because they became absorbed in party allegiances amid partisan animosity, so the race was defined by negative campaigning,” said Shin Yul, a politics professor at Seoul’s Myongji University.

“Whoever wins will be tasked with an important but difficult task of healing the divisions.”