Huge crowds vote in South Korean presidential election

Huge crowds voted today in a tight presidential race pitting the son of North Korean refugees against the conservative daughter of a late dictator who both favour greater engagement with rival North Korea.

Despite bitter cold, the turnout was higher than in past elections. Political analysts said that might provide a slight boost to liberal Moon Jae-in over conservative Park Geun-hye in their contest to lead Asia’s fourth-largest economy at a time of high tension with Pyongyang.

South Koreans stood in long lines, wrapped in mufflers and parkas. A big turnout could mean large numbers of young people more likely to be aligned with Moon are going to the polls, analysts said.

Park’s conservative base is comprised mainly of older voters who remember with fondness what they see as the firm economic and security guidance of her dictator father, Park Chung-hee.

Seoul’s election watchdog said the turnout was about 59 per cent this afternoon, which is 11 percentage points higher than five years ago, when current conservative President Lee Myung-bak won a landslide victory It is also 5 percentage points higher than a decade ago, when Moon’s protégé and former boss, liberal Roh Moo-hyun, won.

Today is a national holiday in South Korea. Polls opened at 2100 GMT and were to close at 0900 GMT, after which television broadcasters planned to announce results from exit polls predicting a winner.

For all their differences, Moon, who was Roh’s former chief of staff, and Park, who belongs to Lee’s party, hold remarkably similar views on the need to engage with Pyongyang and other issues.

One big reason: Many voters are dissatisfied with current President Lee, including with his hard-line stance on the country’s authoritarian rival to the north. Park has had to tack to the centre in her bid to become South Korea’s first woman president.

Many voters blame inter-Korean tension for encouraging North Korea to conduct nuclear and missile tests including a rocket launch by Pyongyang last week that outsiders call a cover for a banned long-range missile test.

Some also say ragged North-South relations led to two attacks blamed on Pyongyang that killed 50 South Koreans in 2010. Earlier polls showed Park and Moon in a dead heat.

“Everything’s now at heaven’s disposal,” Moon told presspersons at a polling station in the southeastern port city of Busan. “I have put forward every bit of my energy.”

Park, a five-term lawmaker, voted in Seoul and said she would wait for the “people’s choice with a humble mind,” calling on voters to “open a new era” for their nation.

South Koreans express deepening worry about the economy and disgust over the alleged involvement of aides close to Lee in corruption scandals.

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