Final vote count: Lee Jae-myung wins with 49.42%, Kim Moon-soo 41.15%
Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the Democratic Party of Korea, and his wife Kim Hye-kyung greet citizens during a public event hosted by the party near the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on June 4, ahead of the official confirmation of his election victory. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul
Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party of Korea has been elected South Korea’s next president after securing 49.42 percent of the vote in the country’s 21st presidential election, according to the final count completed early Wednesday morning.
His closest rival, Kim Moon-soo of the People Power Party, garnered 41.15 percent.
The National Election Commission said the vote count reached 100 percent at 5:02 a.m. on June 4, about eight hours and 22 minutes after counting began the previous evening. The commission convened a general meeting at 6 a.m. to formally confirm the winner.
Lee received a total of 17,287,513 votes, while Kim won 14,395,639 — a difference of 2,891,874 votes, or 8.27 percentage points. Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok came in third with 2,917,523 votes (8.34 percent), followed by Kwon Young-guk of the Democratic Labor Party with 344,150 votes (0.98 percent) and independent candidate Song Jin-ho with 35,797 votes (0.10 percent).
Lee began pulling ahead of Kim early in the vote count and maintained his lead throughout the night. At around 11:15 p.m. on Tuesday, the country’s three major broadcasters — KBS, MBC, and SBS — projected a likely victory for Lee, upgrading it to a definitive win about 25 minutes later.
However, Lee’s final vote share fell short of expectations based on exit polls conducted by the same three broadcasters, which had projected him winning 51.7 percent. He ultimately failed to secure an outright majority.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, a sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.