President-elect
Lee Myung-bak
adresses supporters gathered at Seoul Plaza on Wednesday night./Newsis
(Click to enlarge)
Lee Myung-bak Elected President by a Landslide
Grand National Party presidential candidate Lee Myung-bak soared to victory in the 17th presidential election on Wednesday, missing an absolute majority by a hair’s breadth.
As of 11.55 p.m. on Wednesday, with 92.8 percent of the votes counted, Lee had won 10,578,817 votes or 48.3 percent, outdistancing his closest rivals by a margin of over 20 points. Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party won 5,810,857 votes or 26.5 percent, and second runner-up Lee Hoi-chang, the breakaway conservative candidate, landed 3,315,617 votes or 15.1 percent. On the trend, Lee is likely to end up ahead of Chung by a margin of about 4.6 million votes or 19.5 points.
The conservatives return to power 10 years after Lee Hoi-chang, in the first of three ill-fated candidacies, lost to Democratic Party candidate Kim Dae-jung in 1997.
english.chosun.com (Posted 12/19/07)
President-elect
Lee Myung-bak,
left, poses with his
wife, Kim Yoon-ok
in this file photo.
(Korea Times)