Seoul (dpa -AFX) – In South Korea, the early election of a new president has started. A little more than 44 million people should decide who succeeds the conservative politician Yoon Suk Yeol, who surprisingly proclaimed war law at the beginning of December and was removed from his office in the course of the resulting state crisis.
The most promising candidate is the left -wing politician Lee Jae Myung (60), who leads current surveys with a distance of around ten percentage points. The former human rights lawyer stands for an expansion of renewable energies, strengthening workers’ rights and a foreign policy rapprochement course for China and North Korea.
President with a lot of power
The conservative Kim Moon Soo (73) competes against him, who achieves the second highest approval values in current surveys. Kim promises an entrepreneur -friendly economic policy and a hard gait compared to North Korea.
The directly elected president has far -reaching power powers. He not only leads the government, but is also commander -in -chief of the military. He can also issue regulations, for example to determine the concrete implementation of individual laws. Unlike in many other countries, he can only exercise his office for a single, five -year legislative period.
The polling stations close at 8:00 p.m. local time (1 p.m. CET). Shortly afterwards, a first extrapolation is expected, according to which a winner could already be determined./FKR/DP/MIS