SEOUL: South Korea will hold a snap presidential election June 3 to replace recently ousted President Yoon Suk Yeol, the country's acting leader Han Duck-soo announced Tuesday.
The announcement came days after the Constitutional Court removed President Yoon Suk Yeol from office over his ill-fated imposition of martial law in December. By law, South Korea must elect a new president within 60 days of Yoon's ouster.
Deep political polarization will likely shape the election into a two-way showdown between the two major political parties: Yoon's conservative People Power Party and its chief liberal rival, the Democratic Party.
It will be an uphill battle for the People Power Party to hold on to power it struggles to restore public confidence and heal severe internal divisions left by Yoon's martial law stunt.
The focus of attention is on whether conservatives can regroup and field a strong candidate to compete against the likely Democratic Party candidate, Lee Jae-myung, who observers say is the clear front-runner.
Potential candidates
South Korea's political parties are expected to launch primaries to select their presidential candidates in the coming weeks.
The Democratic Party candidate is expected to be Lee, a powerful party leader who faces no major challengers inside the party. Lee, who narrowly lost the 2022 election to Yoon, led the party through a crisis during which many of its members faced off against troops sent by Yoon to surround the National Assembly and vote to lift martial law, and the later vote to impeach the president.
About 10 politicians from the People Power Party are expected to throw their hats in for the party's primary. The most high-profile aspirants are Labor Minister Kim Moon Soo; Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon; Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo; former party leader Han Dong-hoon; and senior party lawmaker Ahn Cheol-soo.