SEOUL, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of South Korea's majority liberal Democratic Party, was highly likely to be elected the country's new president, local terrestrial broadcaster MBC said Tuesday.
With 22.7 percent of the votes counted at 10:53 p.m. local time (1353 GMT), Lee won 47.7 percent and his archrival Kim Moon-soo of the conservative People Power Party garnered 44.1 percent, according to the National Election Commission.
With a 97.6 percent possibility, the TV station estimated that the Democratic Party frontrunner would win the snap presidential election.
A joint exit poll, conducted by three terrestrial broadcasters including KBS, MBC and SBS, showed Lee leading with 51.7 percent of the votes over Kim with 39.3 percent.
Preliminary voter turnout reached 79.4 percent, marking the highest in 28 years since the voting rate recorded 80.7 percent in 1997.
The voter turnout, which included those who participated in early voting last Thursday and Friday, was up from 77.1 percent tallied in the previous presidential election in 2022. ■
