Sawt Falasteen - Polls show South Korea's Lee on track to win presidency by landslide

Six months to the day after ex-president Yoon Suk Yeol plunged the country into crisis with his disastrous declaration of martial law, an exit poll by South Korea's three major broadcasters showed Lee with 51.7 percent of the vote.

Conservative challenger Kim Moon-soo was on track to win 39.3 percent, the poll showed.

After months of turmoil and a revolving door of lame-duck acting leaders, many South Koreans were eager for the country to move forward, with major polls for weeks putting Lee well ahead of Kim.

"I hope the next president will create an atmosphere of peace and unity rather than ideological warfare," cab driver Choi Sung-wook, 68, told AFP as he cast his ballot.

South Korea's next leader will take office almost immediately -- as soon as the National Election Commission finishes counting the votes and validates the result, likely early Wednesday.

He will face a bulging in-tray, including global trade vicissitudes chafing the export-driven economy, some of the world's lowest birth rates and an emboldened North Korea rapidly expanding its military arsenal.

But the fallout from Yoon's martial law declaration, which has left South Korea effectively leaderless for the first months of US President Donald Trump's tumultuous second term, was the decisive factor in the election, experts said.

The vote was "largely viewed as a referendum on the previous administration," Kang Joo-hyun, a political science professor at Sookmyung Women's University, told AFP.

"The martial law and impeachment crisis not only swayed moderates but also fractured the conservative base."

- 'Strength of the Korean people' -

Conservative candidate Kim -- Yoon's labour minister -- failed to convince a third-party candidate, Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party, to unify and avoid splitting the right-wing vote.

Yoon's impeachment over his martial law bid, which saw armed soldiers deployed to parliament, made him the second straight conservative president to be stripped of office after Park Geun-hye in 2017.

Many voters told AFP that they had been shocked by his attempt to suspend civilian rule. It "was the kind of thing done during the old days of dictatorship in our country", Park Dong-shin, 79, said.

He said he cast his ballot for the candidate who would make sure those responsible were "properly dealt with".

At the National Assembly, Democratic Party officials were gathered in a situation room, with a row of televisions set up to watch exit polls and vote counting.

Applause and cheers filled the room when exit polls were announced, placing Lee far ahead of rival Kim, with chants of "Lee Jae-myung" immediately breaking out and echoing through the room.

- 'Turning point' -

Turnout was high, running at around 77.8 percent by late afternoon, officials said -- the highest in nearly two decades, as many South Koreans sought to draw a line under the six months of martial law-linked turmoil.

Ballot counting stations swung into action after polls closed at 8:00 pm (1100 GMT), AFP reporters saw, with boxes of ballots arriving at the Seoul National University Gymnasium in Gwanak-gu district.

The DP's Lee -- who survived an assassination attempt last year -- has been campaigning in a bullet-proof vest and delivering speeches behind a glass protective shield.

South Korean presidents serve a single five-year term.

O.Mousa--SF-PST