Lee Jae-myung May Ride Wave of Public Anger into South Korea's Blue House

Outrage over martial law fiasco could propel him into presidency

- Wendy Teo

SEOUL - South Koreans head to the polls on June 3 to pick a new leader after former president Yoon Suk Yeol was stripped of his powers by the Constitutional Court for his martial law declaration in December 2024 that triggered months of political chaos.

Opposition Democratic Party (DP) candidate Lee Jae-myung is in pole position to clinch the race after maintaining a two-digit lead over his rivals for most of the three-week campaign, analysts said.

This election will be Lee's second attempt at the presidency after he lost to Yoon by 0.73 percentage point in the 2022 race, the narrowest margin ever in South Korea's election history.

In the last set of opinion polls conducted by research firm Gallup Korea that were released on May 28, Lee clinched 46 per cent, followed by ruling People Power Party's (PPP) candidate, Mr Kim Moon-soo, at 37 per cent, and minor conservative Reform Party's Mr Lee Jun-seok at 11 per cent.

In a media briefing on May 27, Gallup Korea research director Heo Jin-jae told journalists that it is quite rare in South Korean politics to see a near-10 percentage point difference between the top two leading candidates, and that based on precedent, it is unlikely for the second leading candidate to close such a gap in just a few days.

Kyonggi University's political science and law expert Hahm Sung-deuk predicts that it will be a landslide victory for Lee Jae-myung, with him riding the tide of public anger over the martial law fiasco to the presidential Blue House.