The electoral authorities of South Korea revealed on Wednesday that the conservative opposition candidate, Yoon Suk-yeol, triumphed in the country’s presidential elections.
According to official information, with 98 percent of the votes counted, Suk-yeol, who at one point served as Attorney General, obtained 48.59 percent of the votes, surpassing the current ruler and candidate for the Democratic Party, Lee Jea -myung, who got 47.79 percent.
“I congratulate candidate Yoon Suk-yeol (…) I have done my best, but I have not lived up to your expectations, all the responsibility falls on me,” said candidate Jea-myung after hearing the results.
After winning the elections, the conservative Yoon Suk-yeol will take the oath of office as the new president of South Korea next May, he will occupy the head of state for a period of five years.
In this way, the pollsters came close to the official results, a joint effort by three local television stations, KBS, MBC and SBS, candidate Lee obtained 47.8 percent and candidate Yoon 48.4 percent, but the margin of error is ±0.8 percentage points.
At the same time, in the results of an exit poll conducted independently by JTBC and published, it had predicted 48.4 percent for Lee and 47.7 percent for Yoon, and in this case, the margin error is ±1.2 percentage points.
The survey was carried out during election hours to 73,297 people in 330 polling stations throughout the country, but it did not include people confirmed with Covid-19 and people in quarantine, since they went to vote after 6:00 p.m. local time, so which was not included in the exit poll.
According to pollsters, this 20th presidential election in South Korea has been the closest in national history, with Lee and Yoon neck-and-neck in popularity polls since before the vote.
