As of 2 p.m. on the 29th, the first day of early voting for the 9th nationwide local elections, the nationwide average turnout was tallied at 7.02%. That is higher than at the same hour in the local elections four years ago.
According to the National Election Commission, since early voting began at 6 a.m. that day, 3,134,398 out of a total of 44,649,908 eligible voters participated.
This is 0.76 percentage points higher than the early voting rate (6.26%) as of 2 p.m. during the 2022 8th local elections.
By region, South Jeolla led with the highest turnout at 14.50%. It was followed by North Jeolla at 12.22%, Gangwon at 9.03%, and Gwangju at 8.63%.
The Seoul metropolitan area was below the national average. Seoul was tallied at 6.58%, Incheon at 6.04%, and Gyeonggi at 5.79%.
Early voting will be held for two days from the 29th to the 30th at 3,571 polling stations nationwide. Voting hours are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The early voting system was first introduced in the 2016 20th National Assembly elections. Since then, the final early voting rates in the 7th and 8th local elections have both been in the 20% range.