South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol joins early voting ahead of parliamentary elections

SEOUL – South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol cast his ballot as two days of early voting kicked off on April 5 for next week’s parliamentary elections, in which his ruling party seeks to retake a majority in the opposition-controlled assembly. 

More than 3.5 million people, or about 8 per cent of eligible voters, had cast their ballots at some 3,500 polling stations nationwide as at 1pm, according to the National Election Commission. It marked the highest turnout for parliamentary elections at this point since the early voting system was adopted in 2013.

Mr Yoon cast his ballot alongside several aides at a station in the southern port city of Busan, where he was expected to attend a business event. He has encouraged people to go to the polls for the April 10 elections, saying it is not only citizens’ right but also their responsibility. 

Stakes are high for Mr Yoon as his People Power Party (PPP) is aiming to win a majority in the single-Chamber, 300-seat assembly, though polls show the elections too close to call.

A failure could undercut his key initiatives to boost the economy, fiscal health and birth rates, and bolster trilateral security cooperation with the US and Japan.

With a 167-seat majority, the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) had passed dozens of contentious Bills, including a nursing law vetoed by Mr Yoon and his party.

The democrats had long been deemed to have an edge in early voting. But Mr Han Dong-hoon, leader of the conservative PPP, was keen to drum up support from younger voters, highlighting corruption scandals engulfing opposition leaders which had disillusioned many people and eventually helped Mr Yoon win the 2022 presidential election.

“Through the highest-ever turnout in early voting history, let us show those who ignore the law and the people the great power of good citizens who have lived and obeyed the law,” Mr Han said after casting his own vote in a Seoul college town. “Our party doesn’t have criminals to protect.” 

The democrats and other opposition parties have described the elections as “judgment day” to hold Mr Yoon’s administration accountable for what they called a “prosecutor dictatorship”. 

Both Mr Yoon and Mr Han previously served as senior prosecutors.

In a joint survey released on April 4 by four major pollsters, 39 per cent of respondents said they would vote for the PPP and 37 per cent the DP. In another poll published on April 4 by Ipsos, 43 per cent said they planned to vote for the DP, and 39 per cent for the PPP. REUTERS