Voter turnout for the 18th presidential election exceeded 70 percent on Wednesday as the dead-heat race pushed people to the polling stations to tip the scale in favor of candidates they support despite freezing weather.

As of 7:30 p.m., voter turnout was 75.8 percent.

Voter participation has been on constant decline since 1987 when the direct presidential election system was reinstated after a pro-democracy uprising that year.

“(In this election) there was a single candidate from both liberal and conservative camps and the race was too close to call, which drew much attention from the voters,” said Choi Young-jin, politics professor at Chung-Ang University.

“Another factor for high voter turnout is that those in their 20s and 30s participated more in the election as they paid keen attention to issues concerning their generation such as unemployment and tuition fees.”

Lee Chung-hee, politics professor at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, echoed Choi’s view.

“As opinion polls showed that the race was too tight, voters might think that their ballots have a critical impact on the political landscape,” he said.

“Voters also push themselves to the polling stations as they are aware that voter turnout is also a key variable that could determine the election outcome.”

The voting rate, which stood at 89.2 percent in 1987, decreased to 81.9 percent in 1992, 80.7 percent in 1997, 70.8 in 2002 and 63 percent in 2007.

According to a recent survey by the National Election Commission, 79.9 percent of those questioned expressed their willingness to “actively cast ballots.”

Voter turnout of overseas Koreans was 71.2 percent for this year’s presidential election and the number of registered absentee voters topped the 1-million mark for the first time this year. This also boosted the anticipation for high voter turnout.

Some observers said the Internet and social networking services also played a crucial role in encouraging young voters to head to the polling stations. Some observers expected young voters’ participation in the election to help the progressive political force.

Voting began at 6 a.m. and ended at 6 p.m. at 13,542 polling centers across the country. 


By Song Sang-ho
(sshluck@heraldcorp.com)