SEOUL– Ruling party candidate Lee Jae-myung and main opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol are in a dead heat, with each winning slightly less than 50 percent of the vote, two exit polls showed Wednesday.
Lee of the liberal Democratic Party (DP) is expected to win 47.8 percent of the vote against Yoon of the conservative People Power Party (PPP)’s 48.4 percent, according to a joint exit poll by broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS.
In a separate exit poll by broadcaster JTBC, Lee led Yoon 48.4 percent to 47.7 percent.
Sim Sang-jeung, the candidate of the minor progressive Justice Party, garnered 2.5 percent in both exit polls.
The joint survey by the three broadcasters had a margin of error of plus or minus 0.8 percentage point at a 95 percent confidence level, while the JTBC poll had the margin of error of plus or minus 1.2 percentage points at a 95 percent confidence level.
This year’s election has been one of the closest presidential races in history, with Lee and Yoon neck and neck in opinion polls leading up to the vote.
Vote counting began across the nation shortly after 8 p.m. Final results are expected to come late night or early Thursday morning.
The DP officials applauded after the exit poll results were reported, though some of them looked uneasy over the neck-and-neck race.
When the JTBC exit poll results were released, some officials shouted “we won,” with DP Chairman Song Young-gil even crying.
PPP officials appeared stunned over the results as they had believed Yoon may lead Lee by up to around 10 percentage points in their own analysis.
After the JTBC poll came out, its monitoring room was swept by silence as officials turned off the sound of the TV speakers.
Source: Yonhap News Agency