South Korean favourite elected by landslide
South Korea’s presidential election was won by runaway favourite Lee Myung-bak by a landslide today.
The former Hyundai chief executive received 50.3% of the vote, according to exit polls.
His nearest rival, liberal Chung Dong-young, had 26%.
Conservative Mr Lee, a former Seoul mayor who was 66 on election day, has led the race for months. His victory ends a decade of liberal rule in the South, during which the country embarked on unprecedented reconciliation with rival North Korea that has restored trade and travel across the heavily armed frontier dividing the peninsula.
Mr Lee has promised to take a more critical view of Seoul’s engagement with rival North Korea and seek closer US ties.
Just days before the vote, the parliament voted to authorise an independent counsel investigation into Mr Lee in a stock manipulation case where prosecutors had already cleared him of wrongdoing. The counsel is to complete the probe before his inauguration in February, and Mr Lee has said he would not accept the presidency if found at fault.
“I want to thank the people who have defended me from numerous negative campaigns,” he said after voting in Seoul.
Unlike previous elections dominated by issues like security policy with rival North Korea or relations with the US, this year voters were focused on economic matters due to concern over high property prices, soaring unemployment and a widening gap between rich and poor.
Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his thrusting business acumen, Mr Lee’s support has been bolstered by unrest over the five-year term of liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, who was constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.
In 2002, Mr Roh was elected after pledging not to be in thrall to the US while also continuing the rapprochement with the North fostered by his predecessor and fellow liberal Kim Dae-jung, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his “sunshine” policy of engagement with Pyongyang.
Mr Lee has made the economy central to his campaign, pledging to raise annual growth.
He first gained prominence as head of Hyundai’s construction unit that symbolised South Korea’s meteoric economic rise in the 1960-70s. As Seoul mayor from 2002-2006, he made his mark by opening up a covered stream to create a new landmark in the capital that also earned him environmental credibility.
His march to the presidency hit a bump this week when a video was released by his liberal rivals showing him saying in 2000 that he founded a firm implicated in fraud. Although he had admitted the same in printed interviews, the video put the words directly into his mouth.
He said the taped comments were taken out of context and denied the allegations.
