SEOUL // South Koreans went to the polls on Tuesday to choose a new president after Park Geun-hye was ousted and indicted for corruption.
It comes against a backdrop of high tensions with the nuclear-armed North and as the country grapples with corruption, unemployment and a slowdown in the economy.
Voters have been galvanised by anger over the sprawling bribery and abuse-of-power scandal that brought down Ms Park, which catalysed frustrations over jobs and slowing growth.
Left-leaning Moon Jae-in, a former human rights lawyer, has held a commanding lead in opinion polls for months. The final Gallup Korea survey of the campaign gave him 38 per cent support, followed by former tech mogul Ahn Cheol-soo on 20 per cent.
“I feel the people’s strong will to change the government ... we can make it a reality only when we vote,” Mr Moon said after casting his ballot with his wife in western Seoul.
Hong Joon-pyo of Ms Park’s Liberty Korea party, who according to the last poll languished in third place in the 13-strong field on 16 per cent, urged voters to support him and branded Mr Moon a “pro-Pyongyang leftist”.
A record turnout was expected, and 63.7 per cent of voters had cast their ballots four hours before the polls closed compared with 59.3 per cent at the same point five years ago.
Kim Sun-chul, 59, said he voted for Mr Moon because “this country needs to restore democracy which has been so undermined by the Park government”.
National elections are public holidays in South Korea and nearly 14,000 voting stations were opened at 6am local time. Exit poll results will be available immediately after voting closes at 8pm.
The campaign has focused largely on the economy, with North Korea less prominent, but after a decade of conservative rule a Moon victory could mean a sea change in Seoul’s approach towards both Pyongyang and key ally Washington.
The 64-year-old, accused by his critics of being soft on the North, has advocated dialogue to ease tensions and to bring it to negotiations. He is seen as favouring more independence in relations with the US, Seoul’s security guarantor with 28,500 troops in the country.
Their presence, he said during the campaign, was “important not only to our own security but also to the global strategy of the US”.
The North has carried out two nuclear tests and a series of missile launches since the start of last year in its quest to develop a missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.
Washington has said military action is an option, sending fears of conflict spiralling.
More recently president Donald Trump has softened his message, saying he would be “honoured” to meet the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un.
Mr Moon also says he would be willing to visit Pyongyang to meet Mr Kim and advocates resumption of some of the inter-Korean projects shuttered by his predecessors, including the Kaesong joint industrial zone.
In Seoul’s prosperous Seocho district, 72-year-old doctor Chung Tae-Wan backed Mr Moon’s conservative opponent Hong, saying he did so because “security is the most important thing”.
But for many South Korean voters, corruption, slowing growth, unemployment and even air pollution from China top the list of concerns.
South Korea’s rapid growth from the 1970s to 1990s pulled a war-ravaged nation out of poverty but slowed as the economy matured, and unemployment among under-30s is now at a record 10 per cent.
Frustration over widening inequality in wealth and opportunities fuelled anger over Ms Park’s scandal, which exposed the cosy and corrupt ties between regulators and powerful family-oriented conglomerates, known as chaebols, that have endured for decades.
Ms Park is awaiting trial over corruption for offering governmental favours to top businessmen – including Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong – who allegedly bribed her secret confidante, Choi Soon-sil.
Mr Moon, Mr Ahn and other candidates have promised to reform the chaebols, which dominate the economy and have long been criticised for operating with little scrutiny.
Another issue is relations with top teading partner Beijing, which imposed a series of measures seen as economic retaliation over the deployment of a US anti-missile system, Thaad, in the South.
In an election day editorial, the JoongAng daily said South Korea had been left "adrift" by the "acute division and lack of national leadership" stemming from the corruption scandal and Ms Park's impeachment.
The vote, it said, was a “great opportunity to put the troubled nation back on track”.
* Agence France-Presse
