It’s over folks. Unless Lee Myung-bak gets caught in bed with a dead girl or a live boy, he is going to win this thing in a landslide.
Like just about everyone else, I kept waiting for Korea’s famously mercurial politics to make this a race but it never happened. The only question at this point is the margin of victory and whether or not MB and be the first candidate to get over 50% of the vote since democracy was restored in 1987.
- Lee Myung-bak 47.4% (up 0.7% from last week)
- Chung Dong-young 21.7% (up 1.9%)
- Lee Hoi-chang 11.8% (down 0.1%)
- Moon Kook-hyun 9.3% (up 3.2%)
- Kwon Young-Ghil 2.0% (down 4.1%)
- Rhee In-jae 1.8% (up 0.9%)
- Other/Undecided 6.1%
Under Korean law, it is illegal to report on polls taken after yesterday, so naturally most news sources got their last polls in today as well. Here is the top three from a few other polls.
- JoongAng: LMB 44.7%, CDY 15.7%, LHC 13.1%
- Chosun: LMB 45.4%, CDY 17.5%, LHC 13.6%
- Donga (a few days old): LMB 41.4%, CDY 14.2%, LHC 13.2%
Naturally, Lee Hoi-chang says not to believe the polls.
In other elections news the United New Democrats have decided to follow Captain Ahab Chung Dong-young in his quest to bring down Lee Myung-bak at any cost. The have filed impeachment charges against the prosecutors who investigated the BBK scandal and found no evidence the Lee defrauded investors. While the anti-UNDP backlash will not be as extreme as the one the GNP faced when the conservatives impeach President Roh in 2004, they will lose some stature and may very well find themselves overtaken by one or more of the other parties on the left in next April’s elections.
Early voting starts today. Around 2% of the population, including solders and the handicapped, can vote early.
8 Comments
Ooo! Ooo! I hope it’s a dead girl. That would be sweet.
Is it just me or does LMB look like a ferret? It would be sweet(?)to see this guy in bed with…let’s say…Andre Kim and Won Bin playing “choo choo train”. Now that would be a cool scandal.
Ooo! Ooo! I hope it’s a dead girl. That would be sweet.
A dead Wondergirl would be electrifying!
“democracy was restored”
Are you kidding me?
Given the consistent and increasing lead of Lee Myung-bak, one may be tempted to think that the election results are a done deal and many voters need not show up on Election Day. But nothing could be further from the truth. Older voters ruefully recall suggestions by the ruling camp five years ago suggesting that their vote was not particularly important – only to see their children come out in droves and vote in a brash, inexperienced labor attorney/one-term legislator as president.
“Never again,” seems to be this year’s mantra among graying voters – which may explain why polls suggest that as much as 70% of the electorate play to vote this time around. Of that population, we may expect a more politically active older demographic as the past five years have been traumatic for the pre-386 generations. To their horror, many feel the present government squandered a good deal of their generations’ hard work and toil that built South Korea into a vibrant economy from the poverty’s torpor.
We could well be seeing the beginning of a “Gray Power” voting bloc in Korean politics. And given the shifting demographic curve due to a decreasing birthrate, this population segment may still have an unfulfilled legacy to impact the political landscape.
> Is it just me or does LMB look like a ferret?
Univ kids all say he looks like Marylin Manson. and call him that as a nickname. There are many K webpages that put photos of them side-by-side, and the faces are in fact quite similar…
His eyes do indeed appear a bit … off.
Perhaps, if elected, he will follow Roh’s lead and get the popular “double eyelid” surgery.
Tom, I agree with you. I really think that the pendulum has swung back the other way. Now if it holds into the spring, a new force in the National Assembly, coupled with a new president, will really push Korea forward (to where, no one knows though. lol).
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