Early voting begins in South Korea for local and by-elections

South Korea commenced early voting on May 29 for the upcoming June 3 local elections and parliamentary by-elections. By 9 a.m. on the first day, the turnout stood at 1.7%, with 758,381 out of 44,649,908 eligible voters participating. This initial rate is a slight increase of 0.11 percentage points compared to the same period during the 2022 local elections.

The early voting period, which runs until June 1, allows citizens to cast their ballots at any of the 3,541 polling stations nationwide between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Unlike the main election day, voters do not need to go to their registered residential polling stations. Voters in areas with parliamentary by-elections will receive eight ballots, while others will receive seven.

Geographically, Jeollanam-do province recorded the highest early voting turnout at 4.12% by 9 a.m., while Daegu showed the lowest at 1.24%. Seoul's turnout was 1.57%, and Busan's was 1.44%. For context, the final early voting turnout for the 2022 local elections was 20.62%, and for the 2018 local elections, it was 20.14%.