The big presidential election happens tomorrow here in South Korea. Here's the graphic you're seeing everywhere on the street these days:
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To be clear, the numbers aren't rankings, although there does seem to be a ranking-type association between a candidate's current popularity and what number they've received (at least for the first two on the list). Lee Jae-myeong (#1), a liberal, is the front-runner, and he's likely to continue most of the policies of the current president, Moon Jae-in, who is also a liberal. At #2 is the conservative challenger and member of the communist-sounding People's Power Party (PPP), Yoon Seok-yeol.
Each of the above campaign posters features a number, the candidate's name, and a little ditty or motto. Here are my rough translations of the first two of those mottos:
#1 Lee Jae-myeong: "Strong in Crisis"
#2 Yoon Seok-yeol: "The President Who Changes the Future" (it literally says "changes tomorrow," but in English, that creates an ambiguity: is he changing our tomorrows, or is he so squishy that his stances will change tomorrow?" In Korean, there's an object marker, so there's no ambiguity, but "tomorrow" in this case means "the future")
Who will win? I'm betting the people will continue to vote for the liberal, but you never know. Lee Myung-bak was a conservative, and so was Park Geun-hye, but both ended up being put in prison. My boss tells me that Park is free now, but Lee is still behind bars.
I saw an article a couple of days ago saying that UK betting markets had 윤석열 as the odds-on favorite, which honestly doesn't seem likely to me, especially after 안철수's last minute stunt. If I had to put money down, it would be on 이재명. If he does win, it will be interesting to see how many of his insane campaign promises he actually keeps (I'd bet "zero").
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