Lee Jae-myung and Ahn Cheol-soo Likely to Win... Returning Presidential Candidates

Lee Jae-myung Leads Beyond Margin of Error in Exit Polls of Three Major Terrestrial Broadcasters Over Ahn Cheol-soo

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Koo Chae-eun] Lee Jae-myung, the general election campaign committee chairman of the Democratic Party of Korea, is returning to the forefront of politics as a member of the National Assembly. This comes three months after his presidential election defeat. Ahn Cheol-soo, the chairman of the Presidential Transition Committee, will also re-enter the National Assembly as a member of the People Power Party.

According to the exit poll results from the three major broadcasters (KBS, MBC, SBS) for the 8th simultaneous nationwide local elections (June 1 local elections) and the National Assembly by-elections held on the 1st, Chairman Lee ran as the Democratic Party candidate for Incheon Gyeyang-eul and received 54.1% of the vote, defeating Yoon Hyung-sun of the People Power Party, who received 45.9%, by a margin of 8.2 percentage points, making his election highly likely.

If Chairman Lee is elected, he will serve as the National Assembly member for Incheon Gyeyang-eul for two years, replacing former party leader Song Young-gil, who ran as the Democratic Party’s Seoul mayoral candidate ahead of the local elections. This will be Chairman Lee’s first time as a member of the National Assembly. Since entering politics, he has only served as a local government head, including mayor of Seongnam and governor of Gyeonggi Province.

Ahn Cheol-soo, who was also a presidential candidate, is expected to successfully re-enter the National Assembly. Chairman Ahn ran as the People Power Party candidate for Gyeonggi Seongnam Bundang-gap and received 64.0% of the vote, overwhelmingly defeating Kim Byung-kwan of the Democratic Party, who received 36.0%, by a margin of 28 percentage points. Ahn, who was elected as an independent in the 2013 19th National Assembly by-election for Seoul Nowon-byeong, will be entering the National Assembly for the third time, following the 20th National Assembly.

Although the joint exit poll results were announced for only two districts, this by-election was held in seven constituencies where vacancies arose due to incumbent members running for local elections: △Chungnam Boryeong-Seocheon (Na So-yeol - Jang Dong-hyuk) △Gangwon Wonju-gap (Won Chang-mook - Park Jeong-ha) △Daegu Suseong-eul (Kim Yong-rak - Lee In-seon) △Gyeongnam Changwon Uichang (Kim Ji-soo - Kim Young-seon) △Jeju Jeju-eul (Kim Han-gyu - Boo Sang-il, in order of Democratic Party - People Power Party).

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