South Korean voters, dissatisfied with Yoon's leadership, may punish the ruling Conservative Party at the polls.
South Korea is holding a parliamentary election in what is seen as a referendum on President Yun Seok-Yeong amid dissatisfaction with the cost of living and corruption.
Voting will open on Wednesday at 6:00 am (19:00 GMT) and will run until 6:00 pm (9:00 GMT). The country's 44 million voters elect a fixed number of 300 members of parliament, with 254 members elected by direct vote in local elections and the remaining 46 members allocated according to party support.
At a polling station in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, voters stood in line to have their IDs checked and receive their ballots before heading to the polling station to vote.
Opinion polls are mixed, with election observers saying there are close contests between candidates in about 50 to 55 local constituencies that are too close to call.
“President Yoon said he would give priority to stabilizing prices and living standards, but since they were not stabilized, I think this will be a big negative for the Yun administration during the election period,'' Kim Dae-ae, 32, a Seoul resident, said with AP. told the news agency.
Yoon, who was elected president in 2022 by a narrow margin over opposition Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, has struggled to push his conservative agenda and has been forced into surgery after weeks of doctors' strikes. are under such pressure. Canceled.
Andrew Yeo, a political science professor at the Catholic University of America, told AFP that his unpopularity was due to a “lack of substantive progress on domestic political and economic issues.” “Prices and inflation remain high, housing prices remain high, and political polarization remains high.”
corruption, dissatisfaction
The Democratic Progressive Party, which has a majority in the outgoing parliament, has criticized Mr. Yun and his conservative People's Power Party (PPP) for mismanaging the economy and failing to curb inflation.
Meanwhile, Democratic Progressive Party leader Han Dong-hoon said that a landslide victory for the Democratic Progressive Party, whose leader Lee Jae-myung is under indictment on corruption charges, would pose a crisis for the country.
The liberal splinter party Rebuild Korea, led by former Justice Minister Cho Kuk, has emerged as a dark horse and is expected to win at least a dozen seats despite offering few substantive policies of its own. There is.
“I plan to make President Yoon a lame duck first and then a dead duck,” Cho told AFP earlier this month.
Mr. Cho himself faces prison time on corruption charges, which he denies.
Democratic Progressive Party member Lee is also on trial for fraud, while Yoon has been embroiled in scandals over his wife's decision to accept a designer Dior bag as a gift and the appointment of a former defense secretary as South Korea's ambassador to Australia. ing. Corruption investigation.
But demographics could help Mr. Yoon, as voters over the age of 60, who are considered more conservative, now outnumber voters in their 20s and 30s.
Many say many young voters are less likely to vote and are disgusted by a political class dominated by older men who ignore their concerns.
They also face economic hardship due to fierce competition in the education sector, fewer job opportunities, and rising housing costs.
Yun has three years left in his single-term term. The term of office of the Diet is four years.
Chung Jin-young, former dean of Kyung Hee University's Pacific Rim School of International Studies, predicts that the opposition could win a total of 150 to 180 seats.
“If that happens, there will be a political deadlock in the Republic of Korea for the next three years because both the ruling and opposition parties will not be able to proceed with things unilaterally and probably will not be able to come to an agreement with each other,'' Chung said.
Exit polls will be available from approximately 6:30 pm (9:30 GMT).