Lee on track to win S.Korean presidency by landslide: Polls

Centre-left candidate Lee Jae-myung is projected to win South Korea's presidential election by a landslide after months of political chaos, exit polls showed on Tuesday, with turnout the highest in nearly three decades.

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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 of the left-leaning Democratic Party with 51.7 percent of the vote.

Challenger Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) was on track to win 39.3 percent, the poll showed.

Hundreds of Lee's supporters broke into cheers outside the National Assembly, as party officials watching from inside the parliament started a chant of “Lee Jae-myung” as the exit poll results were announced. For weeks, major polls had put Lee well ahead of Kim -- Yoon's labour minister -- who struggled with party infighting and failed to convince a third party candidate to unify and avoid splitting the right-wing vote.

After months of turmoil and a revolving door of lame-duck acting leaders, many South Koreans said they were eager for the country to move forward.

"I hope the next president will create an atmosphere of peace and unity rather than ideological warfare,” cab driver Choi Sung-wook, 68, said as he cast his ballot.