Ruling and Opposition Parties Battle for Voting Rate... 'D-1' Final Push

A Neck-and-Neck Race Continues... Candidates Lee and Yoon Encourage Voting

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] D-1, the 20th presidential election campaign officially ends tonight at midnight after 22 days. The race remains extremely close. Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party and Yoon Seok-youl of the People Power Party each claim to have the upper hand. The final variable that will decide the outcome is voter turnout. Both candidates are fighting desperately to get their supporters to the polls until the very end.

This morning, Candidate Lee urged on Facebook, "Until the last moment, persuade every single person by phone, text, and SNS," and at the Yeouido party headquarters, he stated, "We will show you directly how valuable every vote from the people is."

Candidate Yoon, who visited Jeju early in the morning, also sought to win over voters. He emphasized, "Thanks to you, someone like me who didn’t know the political grammar of Yeouido has now entered the stadium approaching the finish line," and added, "Please give me the chance to change the country."

The ruling and opposition parties have clear differences in their views of the tight race. The Democratic Party expects Candidate Lee to overcome the late disadvantage in personality politics and ultimately win by a margin of 1 to 3 percentage points. They cite the consolidation of 2030 women, considered the largest swing group, high early voting rates in the Honam region, and the backlash from the unification of Candidate Yoon and Representative Ahn Cheol-soo as reasons. Woo Sang-ho, the Democratic Party’s general election headquarters chief, appealed, "A nationwide rally of citizens hoping for change in Korea is taking place. We ask for the wise choice of the people."

The People Power Party expects to win by a relatively large margin of over 8 percentage points. They believe the desire for regime change remains strong and that the unification with Representative Ahn has clearly widened the gap. They also interpret the high early voting rate in the Honam region as reflecting support from younger voters and expect a different outcome than predicted. Kwon Young-se, head of the People Power Party’s election headquarters, urged, "Please go to the polls. If you vote, you win. Voting is how change happens. It’s time to put an end to this incompetent regime," passionately encouraging voting.

As a result, attention is focused on the final voter turnout. It is being watched whether it will surpass the turnout of the 19th presidential election (77.2%). Experts analyze that it is not easy to determine the advantage or disadvantage of either party based on turnout. Professor Shin Yul of Myongji University’s Department of Political Science and Diplomacy said, "High turnout can be advantageous to the opposition, but it is premature to assume that the early voting atmosphere will carry over to the final turnout," adding, "This election is difficult to predict who will be disadvantaged or advantaged by turnout."

It is also noteworthy how many confirmed and quarantined voters, who can only vote between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on election day, will participate. Currently, among approximately 1.16 million people under home treatment, about 870,000 are estimated to be eligible voters aged 18 or older. Including those in living treatment centers, the number of eligible voters is expected to exceed 900,000, but it is unknown how many have already participated in early voting.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.