Moon Jae-in leads ROK presidential election

Liberal candidate Moon Jae-in of the Minjoo Party said that South Korea's presidential election is "a great victory of great people" after most of local media outlets viewed his victory as assured.

Moon told his jubilant supporters gathering at the Gwanghwamun square in central Seoul Tuesday night that he will become a president of all the people from Wednesday.

He had promised to appear in the square if all of local media outlets reported his victory was assured.

His main rivals conceded the election to Moon as exit polls and projections by local media organizations claimed his landslide victory.

Moon vowed to make South Korea a proud and righteous country where people always win.

He said he will become a president of unity caring about those who did not support him, pledging to go forward together with his rivals in the election.

With 9 percent of votes counted as of 10:30 p.m. local time (1330 GMT), Moon garnered 37.5 percent support.

It was higher than 28.9 percent won by Hong Joon-pyo of the conservative Liberty Korea Party and 21.1 percent earned by Ahn Cheol-soo of the centrist People's Party.

Hong said in a televised address that he will accept the election result and be satisfied with restoring his party.

Ahn told the televised speech that he will humbly accept the election result, hoping that his country could go toward a future with a new president.

Yoo Seong-min of the minor conservative Righteous Party said that he had a telephone conservation with Moon to congratulate his victory, asking Moon to humbly hear the voice of voters who did not support him.

Their comments were seen by local media outlets as an apparent concession to Moon. Local media estimated his victory was already assured.

Exit polls, jointly released by three local broadcasters right after the voting ended at 8 p.m., indicated Moon coming closer to to becoming the country's 19th president.

Moon won 41.4 percent support, beating conservative Hong and centrist Ahn by a large margin.

Hong of the Liberty Korea Party won 23.3 percent support, and Ahn of the People's Party gained 21.8 percent, the official exit polls showed.

Yoo of the Righteous Party gained 7.1 percent support, and Sim Sang-jung of the progressive Justice Party had 5.9 percent.

The final turnout was 77.2 percent, or 32,808,377 voters among the electorate of 42,479,710 people. It was higher than the previous election's 75.8 percent in 2012.

An early voting, which was introduced in 2013 and first applied to this year's presidential election, was conducted from May 4 to May 5. The early voting rate was 26.06 percent.

The elected president will have no 70-day transition period as it is the first by-election caused by the removal of former President Park Geun-hye from office over corruption allegations.

The election commission is forecast to declare the winner early Wednesday after completing the vote count.