According to Xinhua News Agency, as of 4:30 a.m. local time on the 10th, the vote counting work of the 20th South Korean presidential election has been completed by 98.94%, and the largest opposition candidate, Yoon Seok-yue, has a vote rate of 0.8 percentage points more than that of the ruling party candidate Lee Jae-ming, with 48.59% of the vote to lock in the elected president.
South Korea's presidential favourites Lee Jae-myung (left) and Yoon Seok-wook (right)
Foreign media said that neither of them had previously served as members of the National Assembly, which was the first time in history that this had happened. Nearly 44.2 million voters reportedly voted in this election, nearly 1.72 million more than the previous election.
To gain the support of young voters
Two candidates each make a "strange move"
Foreign media said that Yin Xiyue had the firm support of voters over the age of 60, while Lee Zaiming had the support of most voters between the ages of 40 and 50. Therefore, in this election, the approval rating of young voters is crucial to whether the two candidates can win. To this end, in order to gain the support of young people, the two have each made "strange moves".
In order to win the support of young voters, Yin Xiyue, the presidential candidate of the largest opposition party, the National Power Party, posted a short video that young people love on social platforms, changing his image of a "grumpy old man". It is based on a "OK, let's go!" The slogan, coupled with its iconic gestures, provided many Korean netizens with material for spoof videos and quickly became popular on social platforms.
Young Koreans pose with Yoon Seok-yue's signature gesture
Behind Yoon is a team of 23 to 38-year-olds, including startup founders, former professional gamers, a psychiatrist and a head of home shopping. Kim Dong-wook, an adviser in charge of Yoon Seok-yue's campaign on social media, said the team is currently working hard to reinvent Yoon Seok-yue's stubborn, violent and domineering image of the elderly. Another adviser to Yoon Seok-yue and political analyst Park Min-yang said: "We have learned a lesson from previous experience: for young people or voters who are less concerned about politics, short and powerful messages can have great power. ”
Meanwhile, lee Jae-ming, the presidential candidate of the ruling co-Democrats, proposed including hair loss treatment in public health insurance after meeting with young voters. Many South Koreans believe that hair loss will affect work and even family, but the cost of treating hair loss in South Korea is currently expensive.
Lee Jae-myung's youth campaign group at a campaign rally in Seoul
In addition, Lee also appealed to young voters in January by calling for the legalization of the tattoo industry. It is reported that the current South Korean law only allows doctors to perform tattoo surgery, so many tattoo industries can only operate underground.
It was exposed that the two were plagued by scandals
Foreign media: Voters can only choose one who is relatively not so bad
According to reports, for a long time, the support of the two popular candidates of the ruling party co-Democratic Party, Lee Jae-myung, and the Presidential candidate of the National Forces Party, Yoon Seok-yue, are evenly matched, but both have been plagued by negative news. According to reports, the Korea Times once commented that the election was an "unpopular presidential election", while the JoongAng Daily directly called the election "dog blood".
Yoon Seok-yue, the candidate for the largest opposition, the National Power Party, graduated from the Faculty of Law at Seoul National University and served as a district prosecutor in Manyu. According to foreign media reports, Yoon Seok-yue, a law graduate, vowed to fight corruption, advocate justice, and strive to create a fairer competitive environment for the South Korean people. In 2021, Yoon Seok-yue, who came from the prosecution system and has no political experience, announced that he would join South Korea's Conservative National Power Party and participate in the presidential election.
However, during the election campaign, Yin Xiyue was burdened by the "black material" of his family, his mother-in-law was sentenced for cheating on insurance, his wife was accused of falsifying her resume, and then she was deeply involved in the "7-hour recording door". In a seven-hour telephone recording between Yoon Seok-wook's wife, Kim Jian-hee, and a reporter from a South Korean television station, Mr. Kim questioned the motives of the victims of sexual harassment, saying they were "just opportunists." Despite the support of the conservative forces of the largest opposition parties, Yoon's support rate was also affected by negative news for a time, and it did not rise slightly until February this year.
South Korean voters fill out their ballots to vote in the presidential election at a polling station in Paju on March 9, according to Xinhua
Lee Jae-myung, the candidate of the ruling Co-Democratic Party, was elected governor of Gyeonggi Province in the 2018 local elections in South Korea and announced his candidacy for the 20th president of South Korea in 2021. It is reported that after the Xintiandi Church detonated the new crown epidemic in South Korea, in the face of the church's high-level refusal to cooperate with the government's investigation, Lee Zaiming sent more than 40 civil servants to raid the Headquarters of Xintiandi and obtain tens of thousands of lists of believers, and his bold style was praised by public opinion. However, during the campaign, Lee Jae-ming was exposed as involved in a corruption case involving a real estate development project in Gyeonggi Province. It is reported that the case is still under investigation, but after Lee Announced his candidacy for president, two key people involved in the case died on December 10 and 21 last year. In addition, his eldest son, Lee Dong-ho, was exposed to gambling, and his wife Kim Ek-kyeong recently apologized to the people for the controversy over enjoying "special treatment".
According to the report, the South Korean general election held in this situation, the voters can only choose one of the two candidates is relatively not so bad, and the new president will face greater challenges after taking office. These include: how to deal with the serious COVID-19 epidemic, gender issues, soaring housing prices, and how to balance South Korea's relations with other countries externally.
On March 5, COVID-19 patients voted in advance for south Korea's presidential election
It is also reported that South Korea's presidential election coincided with the rapid spread of the new crown epidemic in the local area. According to the South Korean Central Epidemic Prevention Countermeasures Headquarters on the 9th, as of 00:00 on the 9th, the number of new confirmed cases of new coronavirus in South Korea exceeded 340,000 in a single day, setting a new high for the number of daily confirmed cases since the epidemic in the country. According to Korean media reports, hundreds of thousands of confirmed COVID-19 patients and quarantined people who are expected to be in isolation can also participate in the voting.
Red Star News reporter Wang Yalin intern reporter Li Jinrui
Edited by Guo Yu
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