Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party is currently topping opinion polls, but now risks being removed from the ballot.
South Korea’s Supreme Court overturned a ruling on Thursday that had cleared the upcoming presidential election frontrunner of violating election law, throwing his eligibility to run into doubt.
Lee Jae-Myung, the candidate of the liberal-leaning Democratic Party, which controls South Korea’s parliament, is currently topping opinion polls ahead of a snap presidential election sparked by former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s being ousted from office over his imposition of martial law.
The election law violation case against Lee had been closely watched, since a ruling that removes him from the ballot could further deepen divisions in what is already a febrile political atmosphere in Asia’s fourth-largest economy.
In March, an appeals court cleared Lee of breaking election law, but prosecutors appealed to the nation’s Supreme Court.
Lee is concurrently tangled up in numerous criminal proceedings, but the election law case was given particular attention because if the Supreme Court overturns the not guilty verdict, and it is finalized, it would bar him from running for electoral office for at least five years.
South Korea’s top court said that Lee violated election law by making false statements and sent the case back to the appeals court.
“The defendant’s remarks … were judged to be false statements on matters important enough to ruin voters’ accurate judgment on the defendant’s eligibility for public office,” said Chief Justice Jo Hee-De.
While the Supreme Court moved unusually fast to consider Lee’s election law case, it gave no deadline to the lower court, which usually takes months to revisit rulings, and it was unclear whether it would come before the June 3 election.
Lee himself said on Thursday that the Supreme Court’s ruling to overturn his not guilty verdict in a criminal case was “completely different“ from the ruling he had expected.He also told reporters he would do whatever the people wanted, regardless of what his political rivals said.
On Thursday in Seoul, the nation’s acting leader and current prime minister, Han Duck-Soo, resigned ahead of his expected official run for the top job.
