SEOUL: Some 15.4 million South Korean voters went to the polls to cast their votes for the next president during the two-day period for early voting. But the number of those voting before Tuesday's (June 3) election levelled off on the second day, reversing earlier anticipation for a new record of early votes this year.

Voter turnout for the two days of in-person voting at 3,568 designated polling stations nationwide recorded 34.74 percent, according to the National Election Commission. That was lower than the 36.93 percent early turnout recorded ahead of the 2022 election.

With turnout on the first day of early voting having reached a new high of 19.68 percent Thursday, anticipation was soaring for a record portion of the approximately 44.4 million voters in South Korea to go to polls in advance, with the election to mark a watershed moment for a country still reeling from the political crisis in the aftermath of former President Yoon Suk Yeol's martial law.

The number of voters having participated in advance voting surpassed 10 million by 10am Friday (May 30). It took 16 hours of early poll operations to hit that milestone number — shorter than 17 hours in 2022.

However, turnout had begun to plateau by 2pm Friday.

As of 2pm turnout amounted to 28.59 percent, down 0.15 percentage point from 2022. Three hours later — an hour before polling stations closed — the gap had widened to 1.74 percentage points.

Rep. Kim Yong-tae, interim chair of the conservative People Power Party, said that incidents exemplifying poor management at polling stations for advance voting nationwide sparked public distrust in election authorities and led people to refrain from casting their votes.

Kim cited news reports that some voters had brought ballots out of polling stations and carried them with them to have lunch outside. He also said a woman at a polling station working there was arrested for casting a vote for her husband without him being present, while ballots intended for the 2024 general elections were presented at some polling stations.

"People are appalled by the botched election management," Kim said, raising a need for an all-out inspection of polling stations this year, while suggesting a change in election law to make it mandatory for all early-voting ballots to carry the signature of a polling station staff member.

Yoon, who was impeached in mid-December and formally ousted in April for his brief imposition of martial law in early December, had cited the threat of election rigging during early voting sessions as among the reasons for the deployment of armed forces to the country's election authority on Dec 3, 2024. Yoon has claimed that he had intended to inspect the election authorities. - The Korea Herald/ANN