The article is claiming declining voter turn out is bad news for the conservative Presidential candidate Kim Moon-soo. I think this is because many conservatives voter know the race was lost when Kim Moon-soo could not create a combined ticket with Lee Jun-seok and are staying home. With liberals united around Lee Jae-myung the conservatives unless something extraordinary happens, have no way to win this election with a divided vote:
![Public officials on May 30 move boxes filled with ballots cast during the presidential election's early voting period in Seoul. [YONHAP]](https://i0.wp.com/koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/06/01/ac435f53-7d69-45d7-9776-ba7d49eb5283.jpg?w=640&ssl=1)
Public officials on May 30 move boxes filled with ballots cast during the presidential election’s early voting period in Seoul. [YONHAP]
“Early voting turnout in the Daegu-North Gyeongsang region had dropped compared to the last presidential election — from 37.66 percent to 28.69 percent — despite both major parties encouraging early voting because voter sentiment has not solidified as much as expected,” said Cho Gwi-dong, head of political strategy at Min Political Consulting.
“The real variable is how many of these disheartened voters can be mobilized for Election Day.”
Much also depends on whether swing voters and anti-Lee Jae-myung conservatives gravitate toward People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo or Reform Party candidate Lee Jun-seok. Analysts suggest these voters remain undecided, caught between a “bandwagon effect” favoring the perceived front-runner and an “underdog effect” that draws support to a surging outsider.
“This election is fundamentally unfavorable to the PPP because it was the impeachment of former President Yoon Suk Yeol that led to the snap election in the first place,” said Lee Jae-mook, a professor of political science at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
You can read more at the link.