The National Election Commission announced that as of 8 p.m. on the 3rd, the cumulative voter turnout for the 21st presidential election was provisionally recorded at 78.8%.
Out of a total of 44,391,871 eligible voters for this presidential election, 34,986,495 have completed their voting.
This reflects the results of early voting, in which 15,423,607 people participated from the 29th to the 30th of last month (34.74%), as well as voting by overseas citizens, maritime voters, and those with special voting arrangements. The National Election Commission will disclose the combined early voting rate on its website from 1 p.m. onward.
The current voter turnout is 1.7 percentage points higher than the turnout of 77.1% at the same time during the 20th presidential election in 2022.
As the combined early voting turnout has shown the highest percentage for the same time frame in history, attention is focused on whether the final turnout will exceed 80% for the first time since the 15th presidential election in 1997. The final voter turnout for the 19th presidential election, in which early voting was introduced, was 77.2%.
The region with the highest voter turnout was Gwangju (83.8%), followed by Jeonnam (83.5%) and Jeonbuk (82.5%). The lowest turnout was in Jeju (74.2%), followed by Chungnam (75.3%) and Chungbuk (76.6%). The voter turnout in Seoul, Incheon, and Gyeonggi was recorded at 79.3%, 76.9%, and 78.3%, respectively.
This voting took place from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at 14,295 polling places nationwide over a period of 14 hours. Unlike early voting, the main voting occurred only at designated polling places based on residence.
However, if voters are in line at a polling station as of 8 p.m. and receive a waiting number, they will still be able to vote after the deadline.
Voters must ensure that they have identification such as a resident registration card, passport, driver's license, youth card, or any photo ID issued by a government office or public institution. Stored images of mobile IDs cannot be used.
The counting is scheduled to begin around 8:30 p.m. at 251 counting stations nationwide. The National Election Commission anticipates that the outlines of the elected candidates will become clear around midnight. However, this timing could be advanced or delayed depending on the difference in vote percentages among the candidates.