Early Voting Turnout for Local Elections Hits 5.9% as of 1 p.m. on First Day, Up 0.6 Percentage Points from Four Years Ago

2.63 Million Voters Participate
Higher Early Voting Turnout in Honam Region
Gyeongbuk Sees Slight Drop in Early Voting Rate

As of 1 p.m. on the first day of the 9th nationwide local elections, the early voting turnout stood at 5.90%.

According to the National Election Commission, out of a total of 44,649,908 eligible voters, 2,633,446 participated in early voting, which began at 6 a.m. on May 29. This is 0.58 percentage points higher than the 5.32% turnout recorded at the same time during the 8th local elections held four years ago. While it is lower than the turnout for the 21st presidential election in 2025 (10.51%) and the 22nd general elections in 2024 (8.00%) as of 1 p.m., it shows a higher trend compared to previous local elections.

On the morning of the 29th, the first day of early voting for the June 3 local elections and by-elections, voters lined up in long queues at the Mandeok 2-dong Administrative Welfare Center, where early voting was set up in Busan, to cast their precious votes. Photo by Yonhap News Agency

By region, Jeonnam recorded the highest turnout at 12.30%, followed by Jeonbuk at 10.31%, Gangwon at 7.59%, and Gwangju at 7.25%. In contrast, Daegu posted the lowest turnout at 4.57%. Gyeonggi recorded 4.86%, Incheon 5.09%, and Busan 5.35%. Seoul recorded a turnout of 5.51%.

Compared to four years ago, the increase in voting rates in the Honam region has become more pronounced. Jeonbuk saw the largest increase, rising by 3.11 percentage points compared to the previous local elections. Gwangju, which is being administratively integrated this year, and Jeonnam also posted significant increases of 2.77 and 2.56 percentage points, respectively. In contrast, Gyeongbuk recorded a turnout of 6.21%, a drop of 0.46 percentage points from the previous local elections, making it the only region nationwide with a lower turnout than four years ago. The capital area saw a slight increase compared to the previous election, but the increase was smaller than the national average.

Early voting is being conducted over two days from May 29 to May 30, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 3,571 polling stations nationwide. The final early voting turnout for the 8th local elections was 20.62%, while the 22nd general elections recorded 31.28%, and the 21st presidential election posted 34.74%.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.