South Korea begins voting for new president
South Korean voters head to the polls on Wednesday, to pick South Korea’s new president in what is believed to be the closest presidential race in its history.
The National Election Commission (NEC) said, “The total number of voters for the 20th presidential election is 44,197,692, including 226,162 overseas voters and 16,323,602 early voters.
“The voting was extended by one and a half hours to allow COVID-19 patients and those in self-quarantine to cast ballots separately.”
The presidential race has been neck-and-neck as voters are obviously divided over the transfer of power.
Recent opinion polls showed approval ratings within a margin of error between Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party and Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party.
An early voting, which was adopted in 2013 and first applied to the 2014 local election, was carried out from March 4 to March 5.
Out of the 44,197,692 eligible voters, 16,323,602 people, or 36.93 percent of the total, cast preliminary votes.
The early voting rate hit a record high, topping the previous presidential election’s 26.06 percent.
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Xinhua
