South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) and its allies are expected to retain their majority with up to 197 seats in Wednesday’s election for the 300-seat legislature, a joint exit poll by three television networks reveals.
The DP and the Democratic United Party, the DP’s so-called satellite sister party, are expected to win a total of 168-193 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, according to the poll.
The ruling People Power Party and its affiliated People Future Party are likely to secure 87-111 seats.
254 of the 300 seats will be elected via direct voting, with the remaining 46 proportional representation seats to be distributed among the parties according to the total number of votes received.
The exit poll is considered a major blow to President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose popularity has suffered due to a cost-of-living crisis and a string of political scandals. Official results are expected to be released early Thursday morning.
Voting began at 6:00 a.m. local time (21:00 GMT on Tuesday) and ended at 6:00 p.m. local time (09:00 GMT) at 14,259 polling stations across the country, the National Election Commission (NEC) reported.
According to the NEC, about 27.4 million, or 61.8%, of the total 44.28 million eligible voters had cast their ballots as of 4 p.m. Of these, over 31% of voters, 13.84 million, cast their ballots during the two-day early voting period that ended last Saturday.
This is the first time in the nation’s electoral history that early voting turnout has exceeded 30 per cent. In the 2020 election, early voting turnout stood at 24.95 per cent.
