By Xinhua
Seoul : Lee Myung-bak of the conservative Grand National Party (GNP) was advanced in the presidential election, an exit poll joint conducted by the KBS and MBC broadcast showed on Wednesday.
According to the exit poll, 50.3 percent of a total of 50,000 respondents across the country gave their ballots to Lee Myung-bak on Wednesday’s election.
The GNP party hailed the result of the exit poll. The GNP said Lee will celebrate his victory as well as his 66th birthday after getting the official result.
The official result of the presidential polls is expected to be released after 9:00 p.m. (1200 GMT).
“I want to thank our people who have protected me against so many negative attacks during the campaign,” Lee said earlier on the day after voting near his Seoul home with his wife.
If elected, Lee will be South Korea’s first president with a business background.
Police said there have been 4,000 supporters of Lee gathering around the headquarter of the GNP to celebrate the victory. More than 480 riot police are deployed near the GNP headquarter in case of conflicts between Lee’s supporters and dissenters.
The exit poll shows that Chung Dong-young of the United New Democratic Party (UNDP) got 26 percent of the respondents’ ballots while independent Lee Hoi-chang received 13.5 percent of the ballots.
Wednesday’s election came after the National Assembly approved a motion on Monday to probe into fraud allegations against Lee Myung-bak. Lee denied any involvement with the fraud allegations and vowed on Tuesday to gain a landslide victory in the presidential polls.
Lee, former CEO of Hyundai Construction and Engineering, is famous for his administration as Seoul Mayor from 2002 to 2006, during which he transformed the city’s landscape with the restoration of a downtown stream and reformed the city’s public traffic system.