Photo : YONHAP News
Voters across the nation continued to cast ballots on the second day of early voting for the October 16 by-elections.
According to the National Election Commission(NEC), the average voter turnout at five districts, set to elect new officials, stood at five-point-95 percent as of 1 p.m on Saturday.
The by-elections will fill the post of superintendent at the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, as well as mayoral posts in Busan’s Geumjeong District, Incheon’s Ganghwa County, and the counties of Yeonggwang and Gokseong in South Jeolla Province.
At 1 p.m on Saturday, the highest turnout of 35-point-21 percent was reported in South Jeolla’s Yeonggwang County, followed by 34-point-five percent in Gokseong County. The turnout was 22-point-46 percent in Ganghwa, 14-point-96 percent in Geumjeong, and five-point-37 percent in Seoul.
Meanwhile, liberal candidate for Seoul’s superintendent Choi Bo-sun withdrew his bid in support of fellow candidate Jung Keun-sik, turning the election into a three-way race between Jung and two conservative candidates, Cho Jeon-hyeok and Yoon Ho-sang.
While the two-day early voting will be held between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. until Saturday, voting on election day will run from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.