Election officials earlier said vote-counting may take longer than usual because of the extended voting time for COVID-19 patients patients and that the winner may not be clear until early Thursday.
South Korea’s presidential election appears to have produced a dead heat between the two main candidates vying to lead the country for the next five years, according to exit polls.
Conservative Yoon Suk-yeol, with 48.4 percent, is slightly ahead of liberal Lee Jae-myung, with 47.8 percent, an exit poll jointly conducted by three television networks showed on Wednesday after voting ended.
Another poll by broadcaster JTBC showed Lee ahead with 48.4 percent, to Yoon’s 47.7 percent.
Election officials earlier said vote-counting may take longer than usual because of the extended voting time for COVID-19 patients patients and that the winner may not be clear until early Thursday.
Voter turnout was 77.1 percent, with record early voting. About 44 million South Koreans aged 18 or order were eligible to vote, out of the country’s 52 million people. About 16 million cast ballots during early voting last week.
The two candidates spent months slamming, mocking and demonising each other in one of the most bitter political campaigns in recent memory, aggravating the country’s already severe domestic divisions.
South Korea’s next president will face mounting challenges, including deepening inequality, a rock-bottom birth rate, surging house prices and the effects of the country’s worst wave of COVID-19 infections.
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