From Cheers to Silence in 5 Hours... Democratic Party's Journey from Heaven to Hell (Comprehensive)

Immediately After Exit Polls, Representative Song Young-gil Tears Up Amid Applause... Surpasses Candidate Yoon Past Midnight

On the 9th, the day of the 20th presidential election, at the Democratic Party's vote counting situation room set up in the National Assembly Members' Office Building, party leaders including Representative Song Young-gil and General Election Committee Chairman Lee Nak-yeon cheered as the exit poll results announced that candidate Lee Jae-myung was winning by a narrow margin. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Myunghwan Lee] On the 9th, as the vote counting for the 20th presidential election progressed, the cheers in the Democratic Party of Korea's election situation room turned into silence as defeat became apparent.

At around 7 p.m. on the day of the exit poll announcement, Song Young-gil, leader of the Democratic Party, Lee Nak-yeon, general election committee chairman, and Chu Mi-ae, honorary election committee chairwoman, were present at the Democratic Party's vote counting situation room set up in the National Assembly Members' Office Building in Yeouido, Seoul. Since many opinion polls had initially predicted candidate Yoon's lead, they maintained tense expressions throughout.

Then, when the exit poll results announced at 7:30 p.m. by the three major broadcasters and JTBC showed a close race between Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party candidate, and Yoon Seok-youl, the People Power Party candidate, the situation room was filled with cheers and applause. Democratic Party election committee officials, who had anticipated a close contest but did not guarantee victory, felt relieved by the ultra-close race. Song Young-gil even wiped away tears while watching the exit poll results.

The counting, which began around 8:10 p.m. on the 9th, started with candidate Lee in the lead. This seemed to be influenced by the early opening and counting of advance voting ballots in the district. At a 3.17% counting rate, Lee had 52.34% of the votes, leading Yoon, who had 44.57%, by 7.77 percentage points.

Afterwards, the party leadership and election committee officials, who had briefly left the situation room, began to take their seats again shortly after 11 p.m. As the counting progressed, the gap between the two candidates steadily narrowed. At a 10% counting rate, the gap was 3.6 percentage points, which decreased to 2.55 percentage points at 30%, and after midnight, it fell within 1 percentage point, resulting in a tie.

Eventually, at 12:30 a.m. on the 10th, with the counting rate surpassing half, candidate Lee was overtaken by candidate Yoon. Around the time of the reversal, party officials watched the vote count broadcast with serious expressions. Some sighed deeply. Democratic Party lawmakers Park Jung and Kim Byung-wook whispered to each other while looking at the situation room screen.

As the gap between the two candidates widened and defeat became evident, Democratic Party election committee officials silently watched the vote count broadcast with stern faces. When KBS and other broadcasters consecutively predicted Yoon Seok-youl's likely victory, the atmosphere in the Democratic Party election committee situation room quickly grew heavy. Woo Sang-ho, general election committee chairman, and Choi Kang-wook, co-chairman, briefly closed their eyes and appeared deep in thought.

At the Democratic Party briefing room in Yeouido, where candidate Lee's press conference was scheduled that day, angry supporters of Lee gathered and caused a commotion by protesting to party officials. Some supporters, unable to accept Lee's defeat, raised their voices, saying, "We elected 180 Democratic Party (National Assembly) members, but they did nothing. They all should resign."

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