South Korea’s presidential race was too close to call as votes were being counted, with an exit poll released minutes after polls closed Wednesday showing conservative candidate Yoon Suk-yeol with a lead of less than one percentage point.
Yoon had 48.4% of the votes, compared with 47.8% for progressive candidate Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party, a joint exit poll by three major TV broadcasters showed. A separate exit poll by JTBC TV network showed Lee with 48.4% of the votes compared with Yoon’s 47.7%. Final official results are expected early Thursday morning.
About four hours after the polls officially closed, 20% of the vote had been counted, with Lee at 49.9% and Yoon at 46.9%, according to the National Election Commission. Workers in protective gloves were processing ballots for an election that came as the country battled a record wave of coronavirus infections. Health officials said more than 1 million people were expected to be under some sort of Covid-19 home treatment on election day.
