South Korea sets June 3 presidential election after Yoon’s ouster over martial law bid

South Korea will hold a presidential election on June 3, the country’s acting president said Tuesday, after former leader Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office over a disastrous declaration of martial law.

The democratic country has been effectively leaderless since December, when ex-president Yoon attempted to subvert civilian rule but was quickly impeached by lawmakers and suspended from office.

The country’s Constitutional Court last week upheld his impeachment, stripping him of the top job and triggering fresh elections, which must be held within 60 days.

The government has set June 3 as polling day, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Tuesday, adding that it would be declared a temporary public holiday to facilitate voting.

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The date took into account “the need to ensure smooth election operations and allow sufficient time for political parties to prepare”, he said.

Han called on ministries and the National Election Commission to “make thorough preparations to ensure an election that is fairer and more transparent than ever, and one that can earn the trust of the people”.

The winner of the election will be inaugurated the following day, unlike a regular poll, where a president-elect has a two-month transition period.

For the time being, Prime Minister Han is running the government as acting president, a job he resumed recently after the Constitutional Court threw out his own impeachment.

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The official campaign period will run from May 12 until June 2.

Frontrunner Lee

Opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is the frontrunner to clinch the top job, with a 34 percent support rating according to the latest Gallup poll.

His party already controls the National Assembly.

Lee narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election but staged a political comeback as leader of the main opposition, despite a career shadowed by legal troubles, including ongoing trials.

Sources told AFP Tuesday that Lee was preparing to step down from leading the Democratic Party, which would allow him to compete freely for the party’s nomination.

Experts say he is now “highly likely” to win.

“With the election date so soon, it’s hard to expect a presidential candidate from an impeached party to be elected president,” said Lee Jun-han, a politics professor at Incheon National University.

“The current polling shows Lee Jae-myung has high approval ratings and he is very likely to win it, as it seems he doesn’t have a proper challenger.”

In distinct second place is Labour Minister Kim Moon-soo.

Polling around nine percent, he leads a pack of challengers from Yoon’s People Power Party, which also includes former party chief Han Dong-hoon.

Millions of Koreans watched the Constitutional Court hand down its verdict live on television last Friday, stripping Yoon of office.

Yoon sent armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree, which the court said amounted to deploying troops for “political purposes”.

He is the second South Korean leader to be impeached by the court after Park Geun-hye in 2017.

South Korea has spent the four months since the martial law declaration without an effective head of state.

The leadership vacuum coincided with a series of crises and headwinds, including an aviation disaster and the deadliest wildfires in the country’s history.

Last week, South Korea was slammed with 26 percent tariffs on exports to key ally the United States after President Donald Trump unveiled global, so-called reciprocal levies.

Yoon also faces a separate criminal trial on charges of insurrection over the martial law bid.