S.Korea Presidential Election In Dead Heat As Polls Close

South Korea's presidential election was too close to call as voting ended Wednesday, exit polls showed, in a race that will shape Asia's fourth-largest economy for the next five years.

Conservative Yoon Suk-yeol, with 48.4%, was slightly ahead of liberal Lee Jae-myung, with 47.8%, an exit poll jointly conducted by three television networks showed. Another poll by broadcaster JTBC showed Lee ahead with 48.4%, to Yoon's 47.7%.

The campaign was marked by surprises, scandals and smears, but the policy stakes are high for the populace of 52 million.

Nearly 34 million, or more than 76%, of the country's 44 million eligible voters cast ballots after a bitter campaign to pick the leader of a nation whose status is rising in the world but is also riven by gender and generational divisions and faces a confrontational North Korea.

The winning candidate must tackle challenges such as the effects of South Korea's worst wave of COVID-19 infections, growing inequality and surging home prices, while navigating an increasingly tense rivalry between China and the United States.

Voters also seek a leader who can root out graft and pursue negotiations to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions.

Lee, the standard-bearer of the ruling Democratic Party, and Yoon, from the conservative main opposition People Power Party, are vying to succeed incumbent President Moon Jae-in, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

A win by the conservative opposition would represent a remarkable turnaround for a party that was in disarray after the last election in 2017, held early after the impeachment and dismissal of President Park Geun-hye.

Moon's liberal Democratic Party, meanwhile, is fighting to protect and continue his agenda, and also to head off threats by Yoon to investigate the outgoing president's administration for corruption if elected.

The two presidents before Moon, including Park, were imprisoned after they left office. Moon faces no specific allegations of wrongdoing, but his administration faced several major corruption scandals among top officials.

Polls last week showed a slight edge for Yoon, who secured a surprise, last-minute boost when a fellow conservative running a distant third dropped out and pledged his support to Yoon.

SWING VOTERS

A former prosecutor general, Yoon has vowed to fight corruption, foster justice and create a more level playing field, while seeking a harder line toward North Korea and a "reset" with China.

Lee was governor of the most populous province of Gyeonggi and shot to fame with his aggressive coronavirus responses and advocacy of a universal basic income.

Both candidates' disapproval ratings matched their popularity as scandals, mud-slinging and gaffes dominated what was dubbed the "unlikeable election".

Young voters who backed Moon but became disillusioned over economic woes and the corruption scandals are seen as a key bloc. Exit polls showed voters in their 20s and 30s nearly evenly split between the two main candidates.

"As current problems for young people concerning employment and housing prices are serious, I voted for a candidate who made a pledge to come up with solutions," said Lee Sung-jin, 33, as he cast his vote in Seoul. He did not say whom he backed.

VOTING WITH COVID-19

South Korea reported a record 342,446 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday but the surge has hardly registered as an election issue, beyond some debate over how to compensate citizens and businesses.

With more than 1 million COVID patients treating themselves at home, election authorities tightened procedures on Monday amid uproar over early voting irregularities.

Officials said there was no evidence of foul play but the irregularities threatened to tarnish South Korea's 35-year democratic history of relatively transparent elections.

In a rare incident of election violence, a man with a hammer assaulted the leader of the Democrat Party on Monday, slightly injuring him while he was campaigning for Lee.