Alwaght- South Koreans headed to polling stations Tuesday to pick the country's new president after their former leader was removed from office in a high-profile corruption scandal.
Turnout reached 70.1 percent as of 5 p.m., 11 hours after voting began at 13,964 polling stations nationwide.
An official from the National Election Commission (NEC) said it expects the turnout to reach the 80 percent level by the time the voting ends at 8 p.m., which would mark the first time since the presidential election in 1997.
Left-leaning Moon Jae-in, a former human rights lawyer, has held a commanding lead in opinion polls for months. The final Gallup Korea survey of the campaign put him on 38%, ahead of technology entrepreneur Ahn Cheol-soo with 20%.
After casting his vote, Moon said: “I feel the people’s strong will to change the government … We can make it a reality only when we vote.”
Hong Joon-pyo of Park’s Liberty Korea party, who the opinion poll had in third place on 16%, out of a field of 13, urged voters to support him and called Moon a “pro-Pyongyang leftist”.
The campaign has focused largely on the economy, with North Korea less prominent. But after a decade of conservative rule, a Moon victory could lead to a sea change in Seoul’s approach towards Pyongyang and Washington, a key ally.
Moon, the son of North Korean refugees who moved to the South during the Korean War, has criticized the U.S rush to deploy the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system, designed to intercept and destroy North Korean ballistic missiles.
Moon, who has served as the opposition leader after finishing as runner-up to Park in the 2012 election, has also called for a realignment of the relationship with the U.S.—to one in which South Korea is more of a leader than a follower in regard to North Korea.
