[Breaking] Local elections afternoon turnout at 46% – highest ever for the same time

South Korea's 9th National Simultaneous Local Elections recorded a preliminary voter turnout of 46.0% by 1 p.m. on June 3, according to the Central Election Commission. This figure incorporates the 23.51% turnout from the advance voting period held on June 29-30.

The current turnout marks a significant increase compared to previous elections. It is 7.7 percentage points higher than the 38.3% recorded at the same time during the 2022 local elections. This makes the current election's turnout the highest for local elections at this specific time point since the tracking system was introduced in 1998.

Regional turnout varied considerably across the country. Jeollanam-do province reported the highest participation rate at 56.1%, followed by Jeollabuk-do at 52.2% and Gangwon-do at 51.8%. In contrast, Gyeonggi-do recorded the lowest turnout at 43.0%. Seoul's turnout stood at 46.1%, and Busan's at 45.1%.

A total of 20,518,553 voters had cast their ballots by 1 p.m. Voting is scheduled to continue until 6 p.m. at 14,288 polling stations nationwide. For context, the final turnout for the 2022 local elections was 50.9%, while the 2018 local elections saw a final turnout of 60.2%.