Provisional Voter Turnout for June 1 Local Elections at 50.9%... Lowest Since 2002 (Update)

[Asia Economy Reporter Oh Ju-yeon] The final voter turnout for the 8th nationwide simultaneous local elections was tentatively tallied at 50.9%. This is the lowest turnout since the 3rd local elections in 2002, which recorded a turnout of 48.9%.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the National Election Commission on the 1st, the final turnout, counted until 7:30 PM that day, was 50.9%, with 22,567,903 voters casting ballots out of a total of 44,303,449 eligible voters.

This local election turnout was 2 percentage points higher than the lowest turnout in history during the 3rd local elections (48.9%), but 17.5 percentage points lower compared to the highest turnout during the 1st local elections (68.4%).

By region, Jeonnam had the highest turnout at 58.5%, followed by Gangwon (57.8%), Gyeongnam (53.4%), Seoul (53.2%), Jeju (53.1%), Gyeongbuk (52.7%), Ulsan (52.3%), and Sejong (51.2%).

The most fiercely contested area, Gyeonggi, recorded a turnout of 50.6%.

Other regions ranked as follows: Chungbuk (50.6%), Chungnam (49.8%), Daejeon (49.7%), Busan (49.1%), Incheon (48.9%), Jeonbuk (48.7%), Daegu (43.2%), and Gwangju (37.7%).

Since the 3rd local elections in 2002, which recorded the lowest turnout in history, the turnout has steadily increased through the 4th (51.6%), 5th (54.5%), 6th (56.8%), and 7th (60.2%) local elections. Notably, in the previous 7th local elections, the Democratic Party planted blue flags in all regions except Daegu, Gyeongbuk, and Jeju.

This local election turnout is the second lowest in history. According to exit polls announced by the three major broadcasters (KBS, MBC, SBS) that evening, the People Power Party is projected to lead in 10 out of 17 metropolitan and provincial governors, including Seoul, Busan, Daegu, Incheon, Ulsan, Gangwon, Chungbuk, Chungnam, Gyeongbuk, and Gyeongnam.

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