The National Election Commission reported that the voter turnout as of 2 p.m. on the first day of early voting for the 21st presidential election, which is on the 29th, was 12.34%.
In the early voting that started at 6 a.m. that day, 5,476,054 people had voted out of a total of 44,391,871 eligible voters.
This is 1.86 percentage points higher than the early voting turnout rate (10.48%) during the same time in the 2022 20th presidential election and 2.77 percentage points higher than the same time turnout rate (9.57%) during last year's 22nd general election early voting.
The region with the highest turnout rate so far is Jeonnam at 23.48%, followed by Jeonbuk (21.52%), Gwangju (20.64%), and Sejong (14.07%).
The lowest turnout rate was recorded in Daegu at 8.36%. This was followed by Busan (10.65%), Ulsan (10.58%), and Gyeongbuk (10.76%).
In the capital region, the turnout rates were 11.83% in Seoul, 11.32% in Gyeonggi, and 11.44% in Incheon.
Early voting will take place over two days until the 30th. Voting hours are until 6 p.m., and voters must bring an identification card and visit the early voting site.