South Korea’s overseas voting in New York wrapped up with low voter turnout, with less than four out of 10 registered voters in the area participating in the April general elections, officials said Monday.

The Overseas Voting National Election Commission in New York said 1,745, or 37.89 percent, out of 4,606 registered voters, cast their ballots at a South Korean mission here during the six-day voting period which began Wednesday.

“We expected that over 40 percent of registered voters would turn up, but the actual turnout was lower than we anticipated,” said Jin Seung-yeop, an election official at the South Korean diplomatic mission in New York.

With 145,120 people in New York and its vicinity eligible to vote, the actual voting rate barely reached 1.2 percent, according to the commission.

There was anticipation that residents living far from the mission in Manhattan would travel to vote during the weekend, the commission said, but that expectation was hampered by rainy weather.

Officials called for an improvement of the voting system, as overseas voting drew little attention in New York from the outset, with only around 3 percent of eligible voters even registering.

“In order to encourage higher voter turnout, the system needs to be changed so that overseas residents can register by mail without having to visit the missions, and more polling stations should be set up,” Jin said.

South Koreans living abroad became eligible to vote in domestic elections after related legislation was passed by the National Assembly in 2009.

The parliamentary elections slated for April 11 are seen as a precursor to the upcoming presidential race in December. President Lee Myung-bak‘s single five-year presidency ends in February next year and he cannot, by law, run for a second term. (Yonhap News)