EXIT POLLS FORECAST WIN FOR MOON
SEOUL: Exit polls in S Korea forecast that liberal candidate Moon Jae-in will win the poll on Tuesday to succeed ousted President Geun-hye.
Exit polls in South Korea forecast that liberal candidate Moon Jae-in will win an election today to succeed ousted President Park Geun-hye.
Official results weren't expected for hours, but the exit poll of about 89,000 voters at 330 polling stations, jointly commissioned by three major television stations and released just after polls closed, showed Moon receiving 41.4 per cent of the vote.
His two main rivals, conservative Hong Joon-pyo and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo, were expected to garner 23.3 per cent and 21.8 per cent, respectively, according to the exit poll, which had a margin of error of 0.8 percentage points.
Such polls are merely a snapshot of the stated intentions of certain voters.
The final opinion surveys released last week showed Moon, the Democratic Party candidate, had about a 20 percentage point lead over his two main challengers for the post of president.
A win by Moon would end a decade of conservative rule in South Korea and could result in sharp departures from recent policy toward nuclear-armed North Korea Moon has called for engagement with North Korea, saying that the hardline approach favored by conservative governments did nothing to prevent the North from expanding its nuclear bomb and missile programs and only reduced South Korea's voice in international efforts to deal with its rival.
The winning candidate will be officially sworn in as South Korea's new president after the election commission finishes the vote count and declares the winner Wednesday morning.
This forgoes the usual two-month transition because Tuesday's vote was a by-election to choose a successor to Park, whose term was scheduled to end in February 2018.