SEOUL, South Korea — On the eve of South Korea’s presidential election, candidates made their final pitches Tuesday as voters appeared ready to choose Lee Myung-bak, a pro-business candidate identified with the nation’s economic growth but bedeviled by corruption charges.
South Koreans’ concern about their economy, squeezed between high-tech Japan and low-cost China, runs so deep that renewed charges this week of ethical lapses by Lee failed to shatter their belief that it was time to elect someone considered capable of reviving the economy, pollsters said.
Lee — a former star executive at several subsidiaries of Hyundai — would be the first businessman-turned -president in South Korea.
Pollsters and political analysts said South Koreans were so used to financial scandals that they were ready to withhold moral indignation and give Lee a chance to create jobs and curb soaring housing prices.
But they also said voter turnout on today could be unusually low, as some people, disenchanted with Lee’s ethics but also angry with the liberals’ economic incompetence, may decide to stay home.
