Early Voting Rate Finalized at 20.62%... Highest Ever for Local Elections

On the early voting day of the 8th nationwide local elections, citizens are casting their votes at the early voting station set up in Terminal 1 of Incheon International Airport. Photo by Mun Ho-nam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] The early voting rate for the 8th nationwide simultaneous local elections recorded a final rate of 20.62%. This is the highest early voting rate among all local elections to date and the fourth highest early voting rate among all nationwide elections.

The National Election Commission announced on the 28th that the early voting results conducted over two days from the previous day were finally tallied as such. The early voting rate is 0.48 percentage points higher than the 20.1% recorded in the June 13, 2018 local elections.

Out of a total of 44,303,449 eligible voters, 9,133,522 cast their votes. Early voting began simultaneously at polling stations nationwide at 6 a.m. and ended at 8 p.m. The Election Commission closed voting for general voters at 6 p.m. and conducted voting for COVID-19 confirmed patients from 6:30 p.m. for two hours.

The region with the highest voting rate so far is Jeonnam (31.04%), followed by Gangwon (25.2%), Jeonbuk (24.41%), Gyeongbuk (23.19%), and Sejong (22.39%). The lowest was Daegu with 14.8%. Gwangju (17.28%), Busan (18.59%), Gyeonggi (19.06%), and Ulsan (19.65%) followed. The voting rates in the metropolitan area were 21.2% in Seoul and 20.08% in Incheon.

However, this is significantly lower than the record-high early voting rate of 36.93% in the 20th presidential election held last March. It is also lower than the early voting rates of 26.69% in the 21st National Assembly general election and 26.1% in the 19th presidential election.

The early voting rate for the National Assembly by-elections held simultaneously with this local election was finally tallied at 21.76%. The number of early voters in the by-elections was 261,308.