Voters choose Korea's next president Wednesday

Politics

Published: 08 Mar. 2022, 18:46 Updated: 09 Mar. 2022, 10:20

Voters choose Korea's next president Wednesday

Election staffers conduct final inspections at a counting station in Samsan World Gymnasium in Bupyeong District, Incheon, on the eve of the 20th presidential election Tuesday. Korean voters will cast their ballots at 14,464 polling stations nationwide starting 6 a.m. Wednesday, which will be transferred to 251 counting centers to be tallied. [YONHAP]

Voters will choose Korea's president Wednesday, with frontrunners Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) and Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) contesting one of Korea's closest elections to date.

There are a total of 44,197,692 eligible voters for the 20th presidential election, according to the National Election Commission (NEC), an increase by 203,445 from the 2020 general election and 1,717,982 more than for the 19th presidential election in 2017.

Voters will be able to cast their ballots at 14,464 polling stations nationwide from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday.

Voters with Covid-19 or undergoing quarantine will be able to cast their ballots at the same locations from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. due to a revision in the election law enabling the extension of voting hours due to the pandemic.

There will be 500 more polling stations compared to 13,964 sites in the 19th presidential election, with expectations for a high voter turnout.

The country saw a record early voting turnout of 36.93 percent of all registered voters, and 16,323,602 people already cast their ballots Friday and Saturday.

Earlier, overseas voting turnout reached 71.6 percent, with 161,878 out of a total of 226,162 overseas voters casting their votes in 219 polling stations at 177 diplomatic missions in 115 countries from Feb. 23 to 28.

Analysts are watching to see if overall voting turnout will surpass 80 percent for the first time since the 15th presidential election in 1997.

The country saw a record 89.2 percent voting turnout in 1987 after a constitutional amendment allowed direct, democratic presidential elections. Since then, turnout had been on a downward trend, with 81.9 percent in 1992, 80.7 percent in 1997, 70.8 in 2002 and 63 percent in 2007. Turnout rebounded to 75.8 percent in 2012 and 77.2 percent in 2017.

Voters can find their polling station on the NEC website and must bring a form of identification, wear a mask and follow Covid-19 protocols. Covid-19 patients and quarantined people will need permits issued in advance from quarantine authorities to go out to vote.

Taking photos inside the polling station is against the law, and violators can be sentenced to up to two years in prison or a fine of up to 4 million won.

After voting closes, ballot boxes including those stored by local election commissions from early voting will be transferred to 251 counting stations escorted by police.

In past presidential elections, counting usually finished before 7 a.m. the next day, but this time around, extended voting hours could delay the final results.

Exit polls are also expected to have more difficultly predicting the outcome of the race this time around, with nearly 37 percent of voters already having cast their ballots. They also will not include Covid-19 voters.

Exit polls jointly conducted by the three terrestrial broadcasters, KBS, MBC and SBS will be released at 7:30 p.m. after voting closes. JTBC will also conduct an independent exit poll for the first time.

Lee and Yoon were running a neck-and-neck race, both receiving around 40 percent support in opinion polls conducted before media outlets were banned from releasing public survey results in accordance with election law last week.

The major candidates converged on Seoul for their final campaign rallies on the eve of the election Tuesday.

Lee focused his last campaign rallies in the metropolitan area, including Gyeonggi's Goyang, Paju and Gwangmyeong, Incheon, and Seoul's Yeouido and Gwanghwamun.

DP Chairman Song Young-gil, who was attacked with a hammer by an elderly YouTuber while campaigning the previous day, joined Lee at the DP's headquarters in Yeouido ahead of the candidate's press conference that morning.

Yoon blazed through the nation starting on the southern Jeju Island, and traveled to Busan, Daegu and Daejeon. His final rally was set for Seoul Plaza in central Seoul, near Lee's in Cheonggye Plaza in Gwanghwamun.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the opposition People's Party withdrew from the presidential race last Thursday to support Yoon in a last-minute alliance with the PPP. Despite being from a minor party, his popularity grew in the beginning of the year and support reached over 10 percent in opinion polls. Following his alliance with Yoon, Ahn has appeared beside him in several PPP campaign rallies, including one in Busan on Tuesday.

Sim Sang-jeung, presidential candidate for the minor progressive Justice Party, who has consistently polled in the low single digits, held rallies near university areas in Seoul, with a final stop in Hongdae, western Seoul, a hotspot for youths.

BY SARAH KIM [kim.sarah@joongang.co.kr]