Seoul Voter Turnout 58.2%, Busan Voter Turnout 52.7%
Held in 21 Locations Nationwide
[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The April 7 by-elections recorded the highest voter turnout among by-elections held since 2014.
Vote counting is underway at the counting center set up at Mapo-gu Community Sports Center in Seoul on the 7th, the voting day of the April 7 by-elections. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@
On the 7th, the National Election Commission announced that the provisional turnout rate for the by-elections was 55.5%. The voter turnout rates for the Seoul mayoral and Busan mayoral elections were recorded at 58.2% and 52.7%, respectively.
This is only 4.7 percentage points lower than the 7th local elections held nationwide in 2018. Although it is 10.7 percentage points lower than last year's general election, it should be noted that the previous general election had an unusually high turnout. In particular, previous by-elections were held on weekdays rather than holidays, yet they achieved record turnout rates comparable to local elections.
In fact, although this election took the form of a by-election, it was conducted on a massive scale with a total of 12,161,624 eligible voters participating, and it was held amid nationwide attention as a prelude to the presidential election. Especially notable was the Seoul mayoral election, where the turnout was only 1.7 percentage points lower than the 2018 local election turnout. The Busan mayoral election turnout was 6.1 percentage points lower than that of the local elections.
In the Seoul mayoral election, out of 8,425,869 eligible voters, 4,903,624 cast their votes. In Busan, 1,547,296 out of 2,936,301 eligible voters voted.
The Election Commission initially expected to complete the turnout tally around 8:30 PM on the day. However, the provisional tally was delayed as COVID-19 self-quarantined voters in some areas of Seoul moved to temporary polling stations after 8 PM to vote, which took additional time.
This by-election was held in 21 locations, including two metropolitan mayors (Seoul and Busan), two basic local government heads (Ulsan Nam-gu District Mayor, Gyeongnam Uiryeong County Mayor), eight metropolitan council members (such as Gyeonggi Province and Chungbuk Province council members), and nine basic council members (such as Jeonnam Boseong County and Gyeongnam Haman County council members).
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