A motorcade carrying South Korea's President-elect Lee Jae-myung leaves for his inauguration ceremony at the National cemetery in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday 4 June 2025;
Credit: Reuters/Kim Hong-Ji
SEOUL (Reuters) - Lee Jae-myung of South Korea's majority liberal Democratic Party was elected president, the ongoing vote count by the National Election Commission showed on Wednesday 4 June 2025.
With 94.4% of the votes counted after midnight, Lee won 48.8% and his major rival Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party took 42.0%, the National Election Commission data showed.
Even if all the remaining uncounted votes go to Kim, Lee will win the presidential by-election, confirming his victory.
Preliminary voter turnout reached 79.4%, marking the highest in 28 years since the voting rate recorded 80.7% in 1997.
Out of about 44.39 million eligible voters, some 35.24 million cast their ballots at 14,295 polling stations across the country.
The voter turnout, which included those who participated in early voting on Thursday 29 May and Friday 30 May 2025, was up from 77.1% tallied in the previous presidential election in 2022.
Lee Jae-myung said: “I want to say that all of us in the Republic of Korea are partners in the country who should respect each other and live together. No matter our gender, region, age, abilities, official status, or whether we are entrepreneurs or workers, we must not allow divisions, hatred, or antagonism to arise at the first sign of disagreement.” He added: “Even if we may hold different positions and have different ideas, even if we have worn different colours for a while, we are now all great citizens of the great Republic of Korea. Let us move forward together, hand in hand. Thank you."
