Early voting in South Korea's presidential election concludes with 34% turnout
This marks 2nd-highest turnout since nationwide early voting was introduced in 2014
ANKARA
Early voting for South Korea's upcoming presidential election concluded Friday with a turnout rate of 34.74%, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The second day of the two-day early voting period began at 6 am local time (2100GMT Thursday).
More than 15 million out of 44.3 million eligible voters have cast their ballots in the early voting period, according to the National Election Commission.
This marked the second-highest turnout since nationwide early voting was introduced in 2014 -- 2.19% lower than the all-time high of 36.93% for the 2022 presidential election.
South Korea launched the early voting Thursday to elect a successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was ousted over his failed martial law bid in December.
The election commission established 3,568 polling stations across the country for early voting.
The two-day early voting concluded 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.
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