South Korea goes to the polls to elect new president after Yoon crisis

A woman casts her vote at a polling station in Seoul during the presidential election that will place liberal Lee Jae-myung against conservative candidate Kim Moon Soo. Photograph: Pedro Pardo/AFP/Getty Images

South Koreans are voting for a new president in a snap election triggered by a brief period of martial law imposed by the now-impeached former leader Yoon Suk Yeol.

Polls suggested that Yoon’s liberal arch-rival, Lee Jae-myung, was heading for a comfortable victory in what Lee has described as “judgment day” for Asia’s fourth-biggest economy.