Overview

• Latest Gallup figures show Lee Jae-myung leading with 49% support compared to Kim Moon-soo’s 35% as campaigns enter their final days
• Lee has built his campaign on limiting presidential powers and boosting development outside Seoul after surviving a 2024 assassination attempt and facing legal indictments he denies
• Kim Moon-soo is seeking to unite conservative factions with promises of tax cuts, technology investment and a push for nuclear energy expansion
• This election follows the December 2024 martial law declaration by Yoon Suk Yeol and his subsequent removal by parliament in April
• The incoming president will confront a contracting economy hit by U.S. trade measures, a plunging birth rate and persistent security tensions with North Korea