South Korea: Lee Jae-myung projected to win snap presidential election

Lee Jae-myung, the liberal Democratic Party candidate, is projected to win South Korea’s snap presidential election, according to joint exit polls released by major broadcasters on Tuesday evening.

The survey, conducted by public broadcaster KBS and private networks MBC and SBS, showed Lee with 51.7% of the vote, comfortably ahead of his conservative rival, former labor minister Kim Moon-soo, who polled 39.3%.

Though Reuters has not independently verified the results, exit polls in South Korea have traditionally aligned closely with final tallies.

Separate exit polls by JTBC and Channel A also forecast a Lee victory by similar margins. JTBC put Lee on 50.6% and Kim at 39.4%, reinforcing the projected outcome.

If confirmed, Lee’s win would mark a political resurgence for the Democratic Party just over a year after its defeat in the 2022 presidential race.

The snap election was triggered by the abrupt resignation and subsequent house arrest of President Yoon Suk Yeol, who declared a brief and controversial period of martial law in December that threw the country into a constitutional crisis.

Roughly 78% of South Korea’s 44.39 million eligible voters cast ballots in Tuesday’s vote, reflecting both deep public concern and high engagement amid one of the most turbulent periods in the nation’s recent political history.

Lee, a former governor of Gyeonggi Province and runner-up in the 2022 election, had campaigned on a platform of economic justice, political reform, and restoring public trust in democratic institutions. His projected return to the forefront of South Korean politics signals a shift in national sentiment following the conservative government’s instability and the fallout from Yoon’s martial law decree.

Kim Moon-soo, running under the People Power Party banner, sought to distance himself from the former president’s actions but struggled to unify a fractured conservative base in time for the early vote.

Official results are expected later tonight or early Wednesday. If the projections hold, Lee will face immediate challenges, including restoring international confidence, managing economic headwinds, and leading a divided National Assembly.

The incoming administration’s first test will be navigating a smooth transition from a caretaker government back to full civilian rule—a task many South Koreans see as critical to reasserting the country’s democratic credibility on the world stage.