Presidential election | South Korea's Democratic Party runs with Lee Jae Myung
Goyang. South Korea's main opposition party has nominated its former party leader Lee Jae Myung as its presidential candidate. The people have entrusted him with "ending the era of turmoil and regression," Lee said on Sunday at a Democratic Party congress in the city of Goyang. The new election was brought forward to June 3 in light of the ouster and arrest of former President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Lee, 60, enjoys high public approval ratings and is considered the favorite according to current polls. He also ran in the last presidential election in 2022, narrowly losing to Yoon of the conservative People Power Party (PPP). In the upcoming election, he will face a PPP candidate, who is expected to be nominated next Saturday.
Lee was under investigation for alleged violations of election campaign laws and corruption, which he described as politically motivated. A Seoul court acquitted Lee of the initial charges in March. However, he faces a number of additional charges, including alleged bribery. If Lee wins the presidential election in June, these charges could be suspended due to his immunity.
A Seoul court acquitted Lee in March of charges of violating the election law, overturning a lower court ruling and removing a major hurdle. Confirmation could have barred him from running for office.
Yoon declared martial law on December 3 due to a budget dispute, plunging the country into a serious crisis. The parliament in Seoul voted to remove Yoon, which the South Korean Constitutional Court upheld in early April.
Yoon is currently facing criminal proceedings. If found guilty, he would be the third South Korean president to be convicted of sedition—after two military leaders in connection with a 1979 coup. If convicted, he faces life imprisonment or even the death penalty. dpa/nd
The nd.Genossenschaft belongs to our readers and authors. Through the cooperative, we guarantee the independence of our editorial team and strive to make our texts accessible to everyone—even if they don't have the money to help finance our work.
We don't have a hard paywall on our website out of conviction. However, this also means that we have to repeatedly ask everyone who can contribute to help finance our journalism. This is stressful, not only for our readers, but also for our authors, and sometimes it becomes too much.
Nevertheless: Only together can we defend left-wing positions!
With your support we can continue to:→ Provide independent and critical reporting. → Cover issues overlooked elsewhere. → Create a platform for diverse and marginalized voices. → Speak out against misinformation and hate speech.
→ Accompany and deepen social debates from the left.
nd-aktuell
