Seoul, 3 June (IANS). The counting of votes for South Korea’s presidential election has begun. Officials gave this information on Tuesday. The exit poll estimates the Democratic Party candidate Li J-Mayang to win the presidency. The election results are expected to emerge around midnight.
According to the National Election Commission, the counting of votes at the counting centers of North Gyongsang province started around 8.35 pm (local time).
It said that the process of counting of votes at 254 counting centers across the country started from 8.30 to 8.40 pm.
According to the Yonhap news agency, the winner’s name is expected to appear around midnight, when 70 to 80 percent of the votes are expected to be counted. The counting of votes will continue till Wednesday morning.
According to four surveys, Li J-Mayang will get about 50 percent of the votes, which will be ahead of the Peeples Power Party candidate Kim Moon Su and beyond 7.5 percent marks.
The JTBC survey estimated that Lee will get 50.6 percent of the votes while Kim will get 39.4 percent of the votes, while the channel A survey has stated that Lee is leading 51.1 percent and Kim 38.9 percent.
The MBN pole estimated that Lee will get 49.2 percent of the votes, while Kim will get 41.7 percent votes, while the joint exit poll of KBS, MBC and SBS shown that Lee may get 51.7 percent and Kim 39.3 percent.
New Reform Party candidate Li Jun-Soq was estimated to get 7.9 percent, 8.7 percent, 7.8 percent and 7.7 percent votes in JTBC, Channel A, MBN and KBS-MBC-SBS surveys respectively.
The margin of error in the JTBC survey was 0.9 percentage points, while the margin of the error in the channel A was 0.93 percentage points, both were 95 percent reliable.
In the KBS-MBC-SBS exit poll, the margin of error was 0.8 per cent at the confidence level.
Officials and leaders of the Democratic Party campaign gathered in the National Assembly’s situation room, when the results of the exit poll were declared, started clapping and celebrating.
“I believe the sovereign people have passed a tough decision on rebel rule,” told KBS, leader representative of the Democratic Party Election Committee.
“These are exit polls, so these are estimates, but we will be cautious until our election victory is ensured and we will see what the decision of the people is, what is the decision of the public.”
The voting percentage for South Korea’s presidential election had crossed 70 percent by 4 pm.
According to the National Election Commission (NEC), out of a total of 44.39 million eligible voters across the country, 31.73 million or 71.5 percent voted till 4 pm. Polling started at 6 am at 14,295 polling stations across the country and ended at 8 pm.
In any presidential election, the percentage of voting was the highest at the said time.
In the initial polling held on Thursday and Friday, more than 15.42 million or 34.74 percent registered voters exercised their franchise.
-IANS
AKS/GKT
