Lee Myung-bak won South Korea's presidential election yesterday by a landslide, according to exit polls and media predictions, as voters overlooked fraud allegations in hopes the former Hyundai CEO would revive the economy.
Lee of the conservative Grand National Party received 50.3 percent of the vote, an exit poll sponsored by TV stations KBS and MBC showed. The next, closest candidate, liberal Chung Dong-young, had 26 percent, and independent Lee Hoi-chang was third with 13.5 percent.
The results were similar to an exit poll by TV station SBS that had Lee winning with 51.3 percent of the vote. YTN news channel's exit poll put Lee on top with 49 percent.
Based on their own prediction system, and taking into account exit polls and early returns, the main public broadcaster KBS said Lee was "sure to win."
With 23.7 percent of the vote counted, Lee was leading with 46.3 percent to Chung's 28.3 percent, the National Election Commission said.
Lee, a former Seoul mayor who turned 66 on election day, has led the race for months. His victory ends a decade of liberal rule in the South during which the country embarked on unprecedented reconciliation with rival North Korea that has led to restored trade and travel across the heavily armed frontier dividing the peninsula.
Lee has pledged to take a more critical view of Seoul's engagement with North Korea and seek closer US ties.
Election turnout was a record low 62.9 percent of the 37 million eligible voters, the election commission said, a decline from 70.8 percent at the last poll in 2002.
The election was the fifth since the direct presidential ballot was restored in 1987 following a wave of democratization that ended years of authoritarian military rule.
Just days before the vote, the parliament voted to authorize an independent counsel investigation into Lee in a stock manipulation case in which prosecutors had already cleared him of wrongdoing. The counsel is to complete the probe before the Feb. 25 inauguration, and Lee has said he would step aside from the presidency if found at fault.
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