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Voting for Korea’s parliamentary elections kicks off

Published: 10 Apr. 2024, 06:00 Updated: 10 Apr. 2024, 14:16

SARAH KIM
[email protected]

A voter submits a ballot at a polling station in Seocho District, southern Seoul, Wednesday morning to elect Korea’s next parliament. [NEWS1]

Voting kicked off Wednesday morning in Korea to elect the 22nd National Assembly.

At stake in this general election are 254 directly elected regional constituencies and 46 proportional representation seats allocated to parties according to overall votes.

The composition of the new 300-member parliament will either empower President Yoon Suk Yeol to pursue his agenda of controversial domestic reforms or render him a lame duck for the remainder of his five-year term.

Earlier voting turnout last week hit a record high for legislative elections of 31.28 percent, or 13,849,043 out of 44,280,011 eligible voters aged 18 and over.

The remaining voters will be able to cast their ballots from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday at 14,259 polling stations nationwide.

Voter turnout was 6.9 percent as of 9 a.m., or 3,071,328 voters, according to the National Election Commission (NEC). This didn’t include early votes.

This was the lowest turnout at this time since the 1996 general election, when hourly turnout rates were made public by the NEC.

After combining early votes cast between Friday and Saturday, voter turnout recorded 53.4 percent as of 1 p.m., slightly higher than the turnout in the previous general election in 2020.

Voters can only cast their ballots at polling stations based on their addresses and will have to show identification.

The ballots for the April 10 general election are the longest ever at a whopping 51.7 centimeters (20.3 inches), taking into consideration that 38 parties have registered for the 46 proportional representation slots, according to the NEC.

Candidates conduct their final campaigning activities Tuesday on the eve of the general election. [YONHAP]

After the 12-hour voting window ends at 6 p.m., all the ballot boxes from polling stations will be transferred to counting stations in each region. Likewise, early ballot boxes stored by provincial and municipal NEC offices will also be transported to the counting stations under police escort.

The first task at the vote counting stations will be to open up the sealed ballot boxes and sort the district seat ballots and proportional representation ballots.

The NEC said that election staffers will have a procedure counting votes by hand for the first time in 30 years as electronic tallying machines can only process shorter ballots.

Thus, the total tallying process is expected to take around two more hours longer than usual. Results are expected to be in early Thursday.

People Power Party (PPP) interim chief Han Dong-hoon, second from left, and PPP candidates hold a final campaign rally Tuesday at the Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul, on the eve of the general election. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

Han Dong-hoon, interim leader of the People Power Party (PPP), wrapped up campaigning at Cheonggye Stream in central Seoul Tuesday after touring other spots in the capital on the eve of the election.

Democratic Party (DP) leader Lee Jae-myung, after attending a court hearing on corruption charges related to land development projects in Gyeonggi's Seongnam earlier that day, held his final campaign rally in front of Yongsan Station in central Seoul.

The PPP, DP and other minor parties held fierce rallies nationwide during the 13-day official campaign period, and the two major parties' leaders spent their last day trying to win over crucial voters in Seoul's 48 electoral districts.

Democratic Party Chairman Lee Jae-myung and other candidates hold a final campaign rally in front of Yongsan Station in central Seoul, Tuesday, on the eve of the parliamentary elections. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

BY SARAH KIM [[email protected]]