Early voting in South Korea's presidential election heads for record turnout

By Anadolu staff

Early voting for South Korea's upcoming presidential election continued Friday, Yonhap News Agency reported.

The second day of the two-day early voting period began at 6 am local time (2100GMT Thursday).

More than 10 million out of 44.3 million eligible voters have cast their ballots so far, with turnout at 24.55% as of 11 am (0200GMT), according to the National Election Commission.

South Korea saw record early voting Thursday to elect a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted over his failed martial law bid in December, as 19.58% of voters cast ballots.

That marked the highest first-day turnout since nationwide early voting was introduced in 2014.

The election commission established 3,568 polling stations across the country for early voting.

The two-day early voting period will end at 6 pm local time Friday (0900GMT).

Currently, six hopefuls are vying for the country's top office, but the actual contest is between two candidates: Lee Jae-myung of the Democratic Party (DP) and People Power Party (PPP) candidate Kim Moon-soo.

The latest poll released Wednesday showed DP candidate Lee leading with 49.2%, followed by Kim of the ruling PPP with 36.8%.

Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party was third with 10.3%.

The presidential election is scheduled for June 3.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid