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Lee Set for Victory in South Korea
remainder of article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/20/world/asia/20korea.html?hp
By CHOE SANG-HUN
Published: December 20, 2007
SEOUL, South Korea A former construction industry executive nicknamed the Bulldozer overcame doubts about his ethics and won South Koreas presidential election on Wednesday, according to separate exit polls conducted by four major television stations.
The former executive, Lee Myung-bak, of the conservative opposition Grand National Party, had campaigned on promises to boost the economy with pro-business reforms and job-creating engineering projects.
He won between 49 percent and 51.3 percent of the vote, according to the exit polls, in an election that took place on his 66th birthday and on his 37th wedding anniversary.
Mr. Lees margin over his closest rival, Chung Dong-young of the liberal, pro-government United National Democratic Party, ranged from 23.7 percent to 26.3 percent. It was the biggest predicted margin of victory since the countrys first democratic elections 20 years ago. The exit polls of 70,000 people each had a margin of error of plus or minus 1 percentage point.
With giant screens flashing the exit poll results, downtown Seoul reverberated with cheers. Fireworks soared into the chill winter sky. Thousands of Mr. Lees supporters danced and hugged each other. Television footage showed villagers at Mr. Lees rural hometown of Pohang in southeast South Korea dancing and waving national flags.
With 22.3 percent of the votes counted, Mr. Lee was leading with 46.2 percent support, trailed by Mr. Chung with 28.4 percent, said the National Election Commission.
Mr. Lees predicted victory returns the conservatives to power after 10 years in the cold. They surged back into office vowing to get tough on the Communist North Korea and mend ties with the United States.
