South Koreans go to polls for new president

South Koreans voted for a new president today in an election widely expected to end a decade of liberal rule.

Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party, who has pledged to be a business-friendly leader who will boost the economy, has led in opinion polls throughout the race by large margins.

A former Hyundai CEO and Seoul mayor, he has also said he would take a more critical view of Seoul’s engagement with rival North Korea while seeking closer US ties.

But the candidate has been rocked by scandal.

Just days before the vote, the parliament voted to authorise an independent counsel investigation into Lee in a stock manipulation case where prosecutors had already cleared him of wrongdoing.

The counsel is to complete the probe before the February 25 inauguration, and Lee has said he would step aside from the presidency if found at fault.

Some 37 million voters in this country of 49 million people were eligible to vote in the fifth election since the direct presidential ballot was restored in 1987 following a wave of democratisation that ended years of authoritarian military rule.

Voter turnout was 47.8%as of 3pm (6am Irish time), according to the National Election Commission, with the day declared as a national holiday.

Election turnout was expected to hit a record low largely due to increasing public apathy over politics and the lopsided contest that has been dominated by Lee. In the 2002 poll, turnout was 70.8%, the lowest since 1987.

Unlike previous elections dominated by issues like security policy with rival North Korea or relations with the United States, this year voters were focused on economic matters due to concern over sky-high property prices, soaring unemployment and a widening gap between rich and poor.

Nicknamed “The Bulldozer” for his can-do business acumen, Lee’s support has been bolstered due to dissatisfaction over the five-year term of liberal President Roh Moo-hyun, who is constitutionally barred from seeking re-election.

Lee, who turns 66 on election day, first gained prominence as head of Hyundai’s construction unit that symbolised South Korea’s meteoric economic rise in the 1960-70s.

As Seoul mayor from 2002-2006, he made his mark by opening up a long-paved-over stream to create a new landmark in the capital that also earned him environmental credibility.

“I want to thank the people who have defended me from numerous negative campaigns,” Lee told reporters this morning, after casting a ballot with his wife Kim Yoon-ok in a polling station near his home in Seoul. “This time, we have to change the government without fail. To do so, all the people should take part in the voting.”

Lee has said he will take a more critical view over aid to North Korea and says he will bolster ties with the US, which has 28,000 troops deployed in South Korea to deter aggression from the North.

In 2002, Roh was elected after pledging not to “kowtow” to the US while also continuing the rapprochement with the North fostered by his predecessor and fellow liberal Kim Dae-jung, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his “sunshine” policy of engagement with Pyongyang.

Lee’s march to the presidency hit a bump this week when a video was released by his liberal rivals showing him saying in 2000 that he founded a firm implicated in fraud. Although he had admitted the same in printed interviews, the video put the words directly into his mouth.

Lee has said the taped comments were taken out of context and denied the allegations, but his opponents have called on him to quit the race.

The other main candidates in the vote include a former TV anchorman-turned-politician who was once South Korea’s point man on North Korea, Chung Dong-young, and two-time presidential loser Lee Hoi-chang who entered the race as an independent.