South Koreans will vote for one of five presidential candidates from 6am to 8pm tomorrow, Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
The race is led largely by the opposition Democratic Party’s Lee Jae-myung. He is followed in the polls by the governing People Power Party candidate, Kim Moon-soo.
Gallup Korea’s latest poll on May 28, 2025, placed Lee’s support at 49 percent, compared with People Power Party Kim’s 36 percent, as the favourite to win.
The election – involving 44.39 million eligible voters – is expected to see either of these two top contenders replace Yoon Suk Yeol.
Last week, the expelled former President attended his fifth court hearing where he faces charges of leading an insurrection and abusing power due to his failed imposition of martial law on December 3, 2024.
If convicted, Yoon could face a maximum penalty of life in prison or even the death sentence.
In the last presidential election in 2022, Yoon narrowly edged out Lee in the closest presidential contest in South Korea’s history.
After his crushing defeat in 2022 to a voting margin of just 0.73 percentage points, Lee now has another chance at the top office, and to redeem his political reputation.
About a month ago, South Korea’s Supreme Court determined that Lee had spread falsehoods during his 2022 presidential bid in violation of election law.
In addition to surviving a series of bribery charges during his tenure as mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province, which he claimed were politically motivated, Lee also survived a stabbing attack to his neck during a news conference in Busan last year.
Fortunately for Lee, the courts have agreed to postpone further hearings of his ongoing trials until after the election.
On the campaign trail this time around, Lee addressed his supporters from behind bulletproof glass, with snipers positioned on rooftops, scanning the crowds for potential threats, as counterterrorism units patrolled on foot.
Lee has also been joined on his campaign by conservative lawmakers, his former opponents, who have publicly supported his run for office numerous times during the past month, seeing him as a path back to political stability.
According to polling data from South Korea’s leading media outlet Hankyoreh, only 55 percent of conservative voters who supported Yoon in the 2022 election said they would back the People Power Party’s Kim this time around.
While such shifts represent the crisis that the mainstream conservative party is facing after the political fallout from Yoon’s botched martial law plan and removal from office, it also testifies to Lee’s appeal to both moderate and conservative voters.
Youth unemployment, social inequality and climate change have also become pressing issues that Yoon’s administration failed to tackle.
According to recent research, South Korea’s non-regular workers, including contract employees and part-timers, accounted for 38 percent of all wage and salary workers last year.
All-Time High Participation Expected
Participation in the election is predicted to be at an all-time high amid the political turmoil resulting from the brief imposition of military rule, which still resonates in every corner of society and has sharply divided the country along political lines.
There are those who still support Yoon and those who vehemently oppose his martial law decision.
Early voting, which ended on Friday, May 30, 2025, had the second-highest voter turnout in the country’s history, at 34.74 percent, while overseas voting from 118 countries reached a record high of 79.5 percent.
The results of Tuesday’s vote are expected to emerge either late on Tuesday or in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
In the 2022 election, Yoon was proclaimed the winner at 4:40am the morning after election day.
However, enhanced surveillance at polling stations this year due to concerns raised about counting errors may be a factor in slowing down any early announcement of the country’s next president.
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