ANKARA

Early voting for next week's local government elections in South Korea began on Friday to elect the metropolitan mayors and provincial governors, according to local media.

The election commission has established 3,551 polling stations across the country for early voting where people can cast their vote from 6 am to 6 pm local time, Yonhap News Agency reported.

In the election, scheduled for June 1, over 44.3 million eligible voters will elect 17 metropolitan mayors and provincial governors, 226 lower-level council heads, 779 members for provincial and metropolitan councils, and 2,602 members for the lower-level local councils.

The voters will also elect seven members for the vacant seats of the National Assembly.

A tough contest is expected between the ruling People Power Party and the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) as this is the first election in the country after President Yoon Suk-yeol took office on May 10.

In March, Yoon defeated the former ruling party DP candidate Lee Jae-myung in the presidential elections with a slight margin as Yoon received 48.6% of the votes while Lee had secured 47.8%.

*Writing by Islamuddin Sajid