South Korea's Lee will win by landslide

SEOUL, June 03 (AFP): Lee Jae-myung of the left-leaning Democratic Party is on track to win South Korea's presidential election by a landslide, exit polls showed Tuesday, with turnout high after months of political chaos.
Six months to the day after ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into crisis with his disastrous declaration of martial law, an exit poll by South Korea's three major broadcasters showed Lee with 51.7 percent of the vote.
Conservative challenger Kim Moon-soo was on track to win 39.3 percent, the poll showed.
After months of turmoil and a revolving door of lame-duck acting leaders, many South Koreans were eager for the country to move forward, with major polls for weeks putting Lee well ahead of Kim.
"I hope the next president will create an atmosphere of peace and unity rather than ideological warfare," cab driver Choi Sung-wook, 68, told AFP as he cast his ballot.
South Korea's next leader will take office almost immediately-as soon as the National Election Commission finishes counting the votes and validates the result, likely early Wednesday.
He will face a bulging in-tray, including global trade vicissitudes chafing the export-driven economy, some of the world's lowest birth rates and an emboldened North Korea rapidly expanding its military arsenal.
But the fallout from Yoon's martial law declaration, which has left South Korea effectively leaderless for the first months of US President Donald Trump's tumultuous second term, was the decisive factor in the election, experts said.