South Korea elections: Liberal Moon Jae-in set to win, say exit polls

He will succeed conservative Park Geun-hye, who was impeached on corruption charges

Exit polls in South Korea forecast that liberal candidate Moon Jae-in will win an election on Tuesday to succeed ousted President Park Geun-hye.

Official results weren't expected for hours, but the exit poll of about 89,000 voters at 330 polling stations, jointly commissioned by three major television stations and released just after polls closed, showed Moon receiving 41.4 per cent of the vote.

His two main rivals, conservative Hong Joon-pyo and centrist Ahn Cheol-soo, were expected to garner 23.3 per cent and 21.8 per cent, respectively, according to the exit poll, which had a margin of error of 0.8 percentage points.

Such polls are merely a snapshot of the stated intentions of certain voters.

The final opinion surveys released last week showed Moon, the Democratic Party candidate, had about a 20 percentage point lead over his two main challengers.

A win by Moon would end a decade of conservative rule in South Korea and could result in sharp departures from recent policy toward nuclear-armed North Korea.

South Korea's acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn and his wife Choi Ji-young while casting their ballot for a presidential election at a polling station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, May 9, 2017. Photo: PTI

Moon has called for engagement with North Korea, saying that the hard-line approach favoured by conservative governments did nothing to prevent the North from expanding its nuclear bomb and missile programs and only reduced South Korea's voice in international efforts to deal with its rival.

The winning candidate will be officially sworn in as South Korea's new president after the election commission finishes the vote count and declares the winner Wednesday morning.

This forgoes the usual two-month transition because Tuesday's vote was a by-election to choose a successor to Park, whose term was to end in February 2018.