Dead heat seen in South Korean presidential election

By Islamuddin Sajid

ANKARA (AA) - The vote count for South Korea's presidential election began shortly after polling closed on Wednesday evening, with exit polls indicating a neck-and-neck race between the candidates of the ruling and main opposition parties.

Voting began at 6 a.m. local time (2100GMT Tuesday) and was set to conclude at 6 p.m. before authorities announced a 90-minute extension for people infected with COVID-19.

The Election Commission is expected to announce the preliminary results at around midnight, according to the daily Korea Herald.

Turnout was high at 75.7% voting as of 6 p.m., including 36.93% during two days of early voting on Friday and Saturday, according to the Yonhap News Agency.

This figure was slightly high than the 72.7% turnout in 2017 as over 33 million people came out to the ballot box out of 44.2 million eligible voters on Wednesday.

Exit polls results released by major broadcasters such as KBS, MBC, and SBS, predicted a tight contest between the candidates of the ruling and main opposition parties.

According to the exit polls, main opposition party candidate Yoon Suk-yeol leads with a narrow margin of 48.4%, followed by ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung with 47.8%. While Sim Sang-jeung, the candidate of the small progressive Justice Party, received 2.5%.

An exit poll conducted by another broadcaster JTBC predicts that Lee would take 48.4% of the vote, while Yoon will get 47.7%, according to the Korea Herald.

The exit polls, however, are based on interviews with voters who voted between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. and do not include the 1.6 million COVID-19 patients.