Live at PPP situation room: Conservatives monitor voting from National Assembly

We now connect with our reporter at the main conservative People Power Party's situation room.

Oh Soo-young is there at the National Assembly Library.

Q1. Soo-young, what's the mood like over there and how's Kim Moon-soo and the PPP observing election day?

Well, it's still quite early in the day, as voting will take place over the next eight or so hours.

So the situation room here is quite empty as of now, as the wait continues with mixed emotions among party members.

There's hope which springs eternal in any election campaign, but also a sense of inevitability and anxiety.

Kim has lagged behind the Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung in national polls throughout the campaign by around 10 percentage points, with some polls showing an even wider gap.

Still, there's cautious optimism that Kim did his absolute best in the campaign, and there'll be a turnaround among the so-called shy conservatives and undecided voters.

As per tradition, Kim Moon-soo himself will monitor the voting and ballot counting process from his home in Gwanak-gu District, southern Seoul.

If the vote count indicates he may be the winner, he come to the situation room here at the National Assembly tonight.

Key PPP figures will be on standby at the party's election headquarters from 7:30 p.m.

Q2. He wrapped up his campaign on Monday with quite an ambitious nationwide tour.

That's right. Literally pulling out all the stops on his last day of campaigning, People Power Party's Kim Moon-soo travelled across five cities in ten hours.

From the southern island of Jeju to the capital of Seoul, the 73-year old candidate pledged to reform governance to meet the demands of the people.

He apologised for impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law declaration, which has tainted his party by association.

As he stopped by Busan for the third time, the conservative stronghold of Daegu, and the central city of Daejeon, Kim lashed out against his Democratic Party rival Lee Jae-myung, warning against his style of dictatorial governance, and raised a red flag on Lee's family scandals.

Kim stressed that his own wife had never used a corporate card and that his daughter had never publicly uttered vulgar language, like Lee's son allegedly did.

Stood on stage with his family at Seoul City Hall square, Kim held his final rally in the Korean capital.

The PPP candidate emphasised unity with former rivals from the party primary, including Na Kyung-won, Ahn Cheol-soo, and Han Dong-hoon, to prevent what he called a dictatorship under Lee Jae-myung.

After failing to achieve a joint conservative ticket with Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok, Kim further called on voters to back him, not Reform's candidate, saying a split vote would only help the DP's Lee Jae-myung win.

(Korean)

Over 22 days of official campaigning, Kim has travelled over 73-hundred kilometers to hold 157 events.

Our Oh Soo-young at the People Power Party's situation room.

Thank you.