Conservative candidate squeaks to victory in South Korean election
Source: The Guardian
Yoon Suk-yeol, a conservative former prosecutor, declared victory in South Koreas presidential election on Thursday after his liberal rival conceded defeat following a bitter battle in the politically divided nation.
Yoon, from the main opposition People Power Party, edged out the ruling Democratic Partys Lee Jae-myung with 48.6% of the vote to 47.8%, with more than 98% of the ballots counted as of 4.20am on Thursday (7.20pm GMT on Wednesday).
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The unusually bitter election campaign was marred by scandals and smears, but the policy stakes are high for the country of 52 million.
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Yoon, who was hoping to benefit from public anger over rising house prices in Seoul, income inequality and youth unemployment, said during the campaign that he would address mounting economic problems with a dose of fiscal conservatism, including a cut in the minimum wage and the removal of limits on working hours.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/09/yoon-suk-yeol-elected-president-south-korea
Park Min-young, 29, spends most of his day talking to angry young men in Seoul.
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"Nearly 90% of men in their twenties are anti-feminist or do not support feminism," he tells me.
South Korea has one of the worst women's rights records in the developed world. And yet it is disgruntled young men who have been the focus of this country's presidential election.
Many do not see feminism as a fight for equality. Instead they resent it and view it as a form of reverse discrimination, a movement to take away their jobs and their opportunities.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-60643446
Sounds horribly like another ginned-up 'culture war' election, with bogus grievances.
JudyM
(29,122 posts)They resent feminists for taking away their jobs/opportunities so they vote a guy in whos going to lower the minimum wage. Makes sense.
Rebl2
(13,303 posts)will be to happy when their new prez cuts their wages 😐
Cheezoholic
(1,967 posts)are being decided more and more by 'razor thin margins" in the last 8-10 years? And the divisive "issue/s" seem to be different in each country, directed at very specific localized prejudices as opposed to a broader difference in ideology that candidates would debate 20 years ago and before for the most part. "Razor thin margins" were much less common then. With that in mind, besides differing levels of democracy across the board, what do these countries, including ours, have in common?
Oh yeah, facebook and its ilk. These entities are not "Social Media". There is nothing "social" about them and they are not "media" in the sense we think of media. We need to stop referring to them with that pleasant little phrase. i call them TIPP's. Targeted Information and Propaganda Platforms. We have got to do something to disable this tool being used by powerful outside and inside entities. They lurk disguised in the bowels of these beasts to deceptively sway the opinions of the many over to opinions that favor the few.
Yes, it's the old divide and conquer trick, but I think this is the sharpest knife if you will, that authoritarians have had in human history.
rpannier
(24,304 posts)The heart of the grievance is the mandatory military service in South Korea. Men have to, and women don't.
Often when men graduate university they have to do their two years of military service.
Women who graduate from university apply for jobs.
When the men get out of the military they find it more difficult than they did 20 years ago to get a job in their field because they've been away from it for two years
It's a weird situation. But the grievance is not entirely bogus. The government just hasn't shown much ability to come up with a good solution
Banning mandatory service when you're still technically at war with a country on your border is a non-starter for the vast majority of Koreans
Personally, I think it should be everyone (man & women) serve right out of high school for two years. Then they can go to university. Then enter the job market