Joint exit poll shows liberal candidate Lee forecast to win South Korean presidential election

Lee Jae-myung forecasted to win South Korea's presidential election, facing challenges including economic slowdown and North Korea's threats.

Liberal candidate Lee Jae-myung is forecast to win South Korea’s snap presidential election, a joint exit poll on Tuesday (June 3, 2025) showed, two months after his arch-rival and then conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office over his short-lived imposition of martial law.

The exit poll by South Korea’s three major TV stations — KBS, MBC and SBS — showed Lee projected to obtain 51.7% of the total votes cast, beating main conservative candidate Kim Moon Soo on 39.3%.

Pre-election surveys also suggested Mr Lee, the Democratic Party candidate, appeared headed for an easy win, riding on deep public frustration over the conservatives in the wake of Yoon’s martial law debacle. Mr Kim has struggled to win over moderate, swing voters as his People Power Party remains in a quagmire of internal feuding over how to view Mr Yoon’s actions.

As the exit poll was announced, Democratic Party members cheered and applauded in jubilant scenes at a party hall, chanting Mr Lee’s name. At Mr Kim’s party headquarters, lawmakers sat in silence.

Voting began at 6 a.m. local time at 14,295 polling stations nationwide and closed at 8 p.m. Nearly 80% of the country’s 44.4 million eligible voter cast ballots, according to an ongoing tally. That’s one of the highest turnouts for a presidential election in South Korea and reflected public eagerness to move past the political turmoil.

The election serves as another defining moment in the country’s resilient democracy but observers worry a domestic divide worsened after Yoon’s martial law stunt is far from over and could pose a big political burden on the new president.

The past six months saw large crowds of people rallying in the streets to either denounce or support Mr Yoon, while a leadership vacuum caused by Yoon’s impeachment and ensuing formal dismissal rattled the country’s high-level diplomatic activities and financial markets.