The final voter turnout in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections tentatively reached 67 percent, the election watchdog said, the highest in 32 years for general elections.
Of an eligible 44.28 million voters, 29.66 million cast their ballots at 14,259 polling stations nationwide that opened for 12 hours from 6 a.m., the National Election Commission (NEC) said.
The turnout was 0.8 percentage point higher than the 2020 tally of 66.2 percent, marking the highest turnout for general elections since 1992, when the turnout came in at 71.9 percent.
The turnout includes the record 31.28 percent turnout from last week’s two-day early voting, and the votes by overseas South Korean nationals and those aboard ships.
Up for grabs are 300 National Assembly seats, including 254 directly contested seats and 46 proportional representative slots.
By region, the central administrative city of Sejong had the highest turnout of 70.2 percent, followed by South Jeolla Province in the southwest registering 69 percent and Gwangju
city in the same province logging 68.2 percent.
The southern island of Jeju recorded the lowest, 62.2 percent, trailed by the southeastern city of Daeju with 64 percent and the central South Chungcheong Province at 65 percent.
Seoul’s turnout was at 69.3 percent, the second highest, with Gyeonggi Province that surrounds the capital at 66.7 percent. Incheon, located west of Seoul, recorded 65.3 percent.
The final voter turnout will be announced Thursday morning.
Source: Yonhap News Agency