With surveys indicating a sweeping win for front-runner Moon Jae-in, it has become unlikely for any his rivals to turn the tables and achieve a dramatic victory overnight.

According to exit polls jointly conducted by terrestrial broadcasters KBS, MBC and SBS, the Democratic Party of Korea’s Moon commanded a significant edge over the four other main candidates, winning 41.4 percent of votes.

The liberal aspirant secured an 18.1 percentage point gap over Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party and 19.6 percentage points over Ahn Cheol-soo of the People’s Party.

The survey results were gathered from some 99,000 voters in 330 polling stations nationwide.

In past presidential elections, exit polls have mostly succeeded in predicting the final winner, though details, such as their final polling rates, were at times at fault.

It was the 2016 parliamentary election that kindled the public‘s skepticism, as the final results turned out quite differently from exit poll results.

Completely overturning earlier predictions the conservative Saenuri Party had the lead, the Democratic Party snatched up 128 of 300 legislative seats to become the dominant opposition party.

For the 18th presidential election in 2012, exit polls claimed 50.1 percent for conservative candidate Park Geun-hye and 48.9 percent for liberal Moon. The ultimate result turned out true, though Park’s final tally was 51.6 percent, showing a difference of 1.5 percentage points, with Moon at 48 percent.

In an attempt to avoid miscalculations, broadcasters said they made sure this year’s polls included not only the candidate chosen by each of the respondents, but also the reason for their choice as well as their viewpoint on key social agendas so as to figure out the respondent’s political tendency.

Moon is likely to officially clinch victory upon the counting of votes, which is expected to finish around 2-3 a.m. Wednesday.

By Bae Hyun-jung ()　


koreaherald@heraldcorp.com