Rival parties encourage early voting with different goals

The ruling People Power Party (PPP) and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) are encouraging voters to cast ballots in early voting for the April 10 general elections, with hopes that higher early voting turnout will help their respective campaigns.

The two-day early voting session for the upcoming elections will be held on Friday and Saturday, in which people can vote at 3,565 polling stations nationwide between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.

PPP interim leader Han Dong-hoon said in a conference, Thursday, he and all the 254 constituency candidates will vote in advance voting on Friday.

"We should not pay attention to the rumors that early voting or higher turnout will be disadvantageous to us,' he said. "Let's think that my ballots will make us and the country win."

To those who are unwilling to go to the poll due to surveys showing the PPP will lose and wonder if their votes can make a difference as a result, Han said, "If you hesitate to go to the polls due to what other people are saying, or vote for candidates who are clearly involved in criminal allegations, you are only pushing the country into collapse."

As for the DPK, its leader, Lee Jae-myung, and a number of candidates of the DPK's satellite party for proportional representation will cast their ballots on Friday to encourage their supporters to vote in advance, according to the party.

Rep. Kim Min-seok, the DPK's campaign monitoring chief, said in a briefing on Wednesday that the party seeks a 31.3 percent turnout in early voting and 71.3 percent in the overall turnout.

Introduced in 2012, early voting has been playing a pivotal role in lifting the turnouts of public elections in Korea ever since, as it encouraged relatively younger people to cast ballots and enjoy Election Day as a holiday.

In most past general elections, higher turnouts resulted in the liberal side to have a majority in the 300-seat National Assembly, with a 60 percent mark playing as a threshold.

In the 2004 general elections, the liberal Uri Party secured 152 out of 300 seats with a 60.6 percent turnout. Four years later, when turnout plunged to 46.1 percent, the conservative Hannara Party bagged 153 seats, and its successor, the Saenuri Party, won 152 seats in 2012 when the turnout was 54.2 percent.

In 2016, when the turnout was 58 percent, the DPK and the Saenuri Party each secured 123 and 122 seats. In the previous 2020 general elections, the DPK clinched a landslide victory with 163 seats with the turnout logged at 66.2 percent.

Despite the past results, however, the PPP is rallying its supporters for early voting, in a view that the recent electoral landscape is showing signs of change.

During the 2022 presidential election, the country recorded the highest early voting turnout of 36.9 percent and elected PPP's then-candidate, Yoon Suk Yeol, as president.

At that time, those in their 50s and 60s had 41.6 percent and 45.5 percent early voting turnouts, respectively, showing that advance polling is also becoming usual for those age groups, which have long been the support base for the conservatives.

And those in their 50s account for the most among eligible voters for the upcoming elections. According to the National Election Commission, 19.69 percent of all eligible voters were aged between 50 and 59, followed by those in their 40s at 17.76 percent.

According to a survey by pollster Metrix released on Wednesday, 39 percent of all respondents said they will vote early, while 58 percent they will visit polling stations on April 10.

Among those who said they support the DPK, 51 percent preferred early voting, while 25 percent of the PPP supporters said they will go to the poll during the early voting period.

However, 45 percent of respondents in their 50s said they are willing to vote during the early voting session, while 51 percent said they will vote on April 10, making the prediction more complicated.

The survey was commissioned by Yonhap News Agency and Yonhap News TV, and surveyed 1,000 adults from March 30 to 31. Further details are available on the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission's website.