About 10 percent of South Korean citizens who live outside of the country have registered for the Dec. 19 presidential election, the state electoral commission said Monday.
Voter registration for Korean expatriates began on July 22 and some 223,557 people, or 10.01 percent of the 2.23 million eligible citizens living abroad, were registered as voters as of Monday, or the final day of registration, according to the National Election Commission.
Under a 2009 law, eligible South Koreans living abroad were allowed to cast ballots for the April parliamentary election for the first time.
However, for the April vote, only 123,571 of the eligible Koreans living abroad, or 5.7 percent, registered as voters and 56,456 people actually cast their ballots, raising doubts over whether their votes would have an impact on the upcoming election.
A commission official said that the registration numbers were higher than the April vote because overseas Koreans have taken a keener interest in the presidential election.
President Lee Myung-bak's single five-year term ends in February 2013. By law, he cannot seek re-election.
Polls show the upcoming election is in a dead heat, with ruling party candidate Park Geun-hye running neck-and-neck in hypothetical two-way races with her main rivals, main opposition candidate Moon Jae-in and independent candidate Ahn Cheol-soo.
Registered overseas Koreans have 10 days to cast their ballots starting Dec. 5 at 164 Korean diplomatic missions overseas. (Yonhap News)
