An anti-establishment wave that aided Brexit, fueled the rise of U.S. president-elect Donald Trump and sparked the resignation of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has now spread to South Korea, where voters are warming up to a politician who likens himself to Bernie Sanders. Anger towards embattled President Park Geun-hye, who is facing impeachment amid alleged involvement in an influence-peddling scandal, has inspired a pronounced wave of political disillusionment. As reflected by recent protests, voters were not only angered by Park's actions, they revealed broader frustration with the nation's history of political corruption, crony capitalism and nepotism—issues that resurfaced in Park's case. Park's conservative Saenuri party has been in power since 2007, and the rising national dissatisfaction with the status-quo, combined with the fact that opposition now controls parliament, could bolster leftist politician Lee Jae-myung, one of the top three contenders in the 2017 presidential election race.

Lee Jae-myung, mayor of Seongnam city, on Nov. 23, 2016. Lee is rising in opinion polls with about a year to go until South Korea's next presidential election. He wants to break up the country's biggest companies, meet unconditionally with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and throw President Park Geun-hye in jail over an influence-peddling scandal. SeongJoon Cho / Bloomberg / Getty Images

Originally scheduled for December 2017, the election may be held earlier if the Constitutional Court decides to force 64-year old Park out of office, as overwhelmingly demanded by the public. Lee, mayor of a city near Seoul called Seongnam, has advocated policies to reduce the income gap between rich and poor as well as plans to break up chaebols, the family-run conglomerates that dominate South Korea's economy and are frequently embroiled in bribery and corruption cases. Hailing from the liberal Minjoo Party, Lee said in a recent Facebook post that he wanted to be called a successful Bernie Sanders. The 52 year-old was ranked third with 18 percent support in a Gallup Korea poll of presidential hopefuls released Friday. Tied for first place were Moon Jae-in, former head of the Minjoo party, and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who is expected to represent Saenuri, with 20 percent each. But out of the three, only Lee has officially declared his bid. "Lee was one of the biggest critics of Park very early on and that has served him well in the minds of the public. We've been looking at people like Moon Jae-in and Ban Ki-moon as the front-runners but Lee has really come out of nowhere," noted Scott Seaman, Eurasia's senior Asia analyst. "It's shaping up to be a very interesting race." Others also echoed how Lee has benefited from the anti-Park sentiment. "Lee's growing popularity is partly the result of dissatisfaction with Park in particular, as well as the fact that the leftist opposition hasn't really coalesced around a single candidate yet," said Justin Hastings, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney. National sentiment aside, strong credentials also underpin Lee's candidacy, according to observers.