SEOUL – Early voting in South Korea’s presidential elections kicked off on Thursday, with both main candidates set to cast ballots in a poll triggered by ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated effort to suspend civilian rule last year.
All major polls have placed liberal Lee Jae-myung as the clear frontrunner in the presidential race, with a recent Gallup survey showing 49 percent of respondents viewed him as the best candidate.
Trailing behind him is conservative ex-labor minister Kim Moon-soo of the ruling People Power Party — Yoon’s former party — at 35 percent.
While election day is set for June 3, those who want to vote early can do so on Thursday and Friday — part of an initiative introduce in 2013 to help those unable to cast ballots on polling day or planning to travel.
South Koreans have in recent years turned out in larger and larger numbers for early voting, with 37 percent casting their ballots ahead of polling day in the 2022 presidential election.
Voting began at 6:00 am (2100 GMT Wednesday) for twelve hours, taking place again on Friday.
According to the National Election Commission, as of 9:00 am the early voting turnout rate was 3.55 percent, the highest record yet for that time in South Korean election history.
Lee, of the Democratic Party, is expected to vote in the capital Seoul on Thursday morning.
“Some say power comes from the barrel of a gun, but I believe a vote is more powerful than a bullet,” he told a rally on Wednesday.
