A quarter of S.Korean voters cast ballots in early voting for presidential election

Over a quarter of South Korean voters cast ballots in early voting for the presidential election set to be held next week, the election commission said Friday.

During the two-day early voting period, 11,072,310 voters cast ballots ahead of the official presidential election day on May 9, according to the National Election Commission.

It took up 26.06 percent of the country's combined 42,479,710 voters.

The unusually high rate of early voting heralded a heavy turnout on the official election date.

Public attention to the country's first by-election for new president is relevant to the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye over corruption allegations that increased demand for the transfer of power.

Moon Jae-in of the biggest Minjoo Party, a clear frontrunner in recent months, garnered 42.4 percent of support in the last opinion survey by local pollster Realmeter before the election day.

Under the election law, no opinion polls conducted after Tuesday can be published. The last survey was based on a poll of 1,016 voters conducted from Monday to Tuesday.

Ahn Cheol-soo of the centrist People's Party and Hong Joon-pyo of the former ruling Liberty Korea Party tied for the second with a support rate of 18.6 percent.

The early voting system was first introduced in 2013. The early voting rate posted 11.5 percent in the 2014 local elections and 12.2 percent in the 2016 general elections respectively.

The early voting was conducted from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Thursday and Friday in 3,507 polling stations nationwide. The vote was made available in district offices as well as train stations and airports. Endit