March 9, 2022
South Korea has elected Yoon Seok-youl as the 20th president.
President-Elect Yoon Seok-youl expressed his gratitude to the people of the Republic of Korea in the early morning hours on the 10th, “Today’s result is a victory for the people rather than a victory for me, the People Power Party, Ahn Cheol-soo, and the People Party.”
Ahn earlier dropped out of the race to join forces with Yoon and came out to celebrate Yoon’s victory.
The president-elect was a former prosecutor and has no political experience yet was elected as the 20th president of the Republic of Korea. “I’ve learned a lot through this campaign,” he noted, and added, “I learned a lot about what it takes to become a leader of the country and how to listen to the people.”
He went on to say that the fight wasn’t over and emphasized that, “We all need to work together to become one for the people and the Republic of Korea.” He also said, “Once elected, we will prepare for a new government and officially take over the duties of the president, we will respect the spirit of the Constitution, respect the National Assembly, cooperate with the opposition party, and serve the people.”
Yoon also delivered words to his competitors, “I would also like to thank both [Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party and Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party]. I would like to say that they have made a great contribution to the development of Korea’s politics.”
It was a neck-and-neck race between Yoon and Lee with the president-elect leading the polls with 48.58 percent and Lee with 47.81 percent by 4 a.m. on the 10th with 98 percent of the votes counted.
Before the race was called, Lee conceded at a press conference held at around 3:50 a.m. “I did my best but couldn’t meet the expectations. Congratulations to Yoon Seok-youl.”
This election outcome was unpredictable as voters flocked to polling stations still undecided whom to vote for and many were casting votes based on which candidate was focused more on improving the economic situation in South Korea.
President-elect Yoon will now have the task of handling not only economic and foreign policy issues but also social issues like population decline and the low fertility rate just like his predecessors, along with COVID-19 restrictions mandated by the Moon Jae-in administration.
