Campaigns offer differing views on record early voting

South Korea's rival parties are offering different interpretations of record-high early voter turnout for the June 3 local elections, with both parties spinning the high turnout in their favor.

Rep. Kang Jun-hyeon, senior spokesperson of the Democratic Party of Korea, thanked more than 10 million voters in a press briefing Sunday for going to the polls during the previous two days of early voting.

"I deeply thank the citizens for taking part in early voting," Kang said, urging those who had not yet exercised their right to vote to do so on Election Day, likening voting to a "lifeline" for South Korea's democracy.

Four-term Rep. Seo Young-kyo of the Democratic Party said the high early voting turnout demonstrates "people's strong desire for the Lee Jae Myung administration's success."

However, the main opposition People Power Party's Rep. Na Kyung-won said via Facebook on Sunday that the high turnout signals a "stern warning directed at the arrogance of the liberal bloc, which makes light of the law and principles."

Also, at a Sunday press briefing in Yeouido, Seoul, People Power Party Chair Jang Dong-hyeok cautioned that the increase in early voting did not necessarily indicate that a specific party would benefit.

"In local elections ... we must look into which regions have high early voting turnout ... and which age groups show high early voter turnout," Jang said. "It is still hard to determine which political party benefits from ... the fact that the early voter turnout is higher than in the previous (local) election."

Election authorities estimated Saturday that turnout for the early voting period from Friday to Saturday had reached 23.51 percent, the highest since South Korea introduced early voting for local elections in 2014. This means more than 10 million people have already voted, as the government estimated that 44.6 million people are eligible to vote in this year's election.

Early voting turnout for local elections has gradually increased since its introduction, with this year's figure 2.89 percentage points higher than the previous local elections held in 2022.

For this election, liberal strongholds in the southwestern region recorded comparatively high turnout rates, with 38.95 percent in South Jeolla Province, 35.05 percent in North Jeolla Province and 27.83 percent in Gwangju. By contrast, conservative strongholds in the southeastern region, including Daegu and Busan, were among the lower turnouts.

Yet the figure was lower than the two most recent major elections in South Korea. The early voting turnout rate for the 2024 general elections to fill the National Assembly was 31.28 percent, while that for the 2025 presidential election stood at 34.74 percent.

Both major parties have seen success with high early voter turnout.

In the 2018 local elections, the liberal party clinched a landslide victory, with early voting turnout nearly doubling from the previous local elections and the second-highest total voter turnout for local elections in South Korea since 1995. The 1995 and 2018 elections are the only local elections to see over 60 percent total turnout.

The 2022 local elections, which recorded a similar early-voter turnout to the 2018 election but lower overall turnout, led to victory for the conservative party.

Against this backdrop, President Lee Jae Myung called for voter participation through a series of posts on X over the weekend, saying that failing to vote would allow the abusers of power to return.

Lee said on his X account overnight Saturday that whether "evil rulers" are elected to public office depends on people's choice to exercise their sovereign right to vote.

Quoting Greek philosopher Plato's comment about the price people would pay for indifference to public affairs, Lee said voters' apathy would bring people "under the control of the most terrible leader."

"The power of voting is stronger than you think," Lee wrote. "Whether those elected become loyal servants who enrich your life or evil rulers who destroy the world and inflict suffering on the people depends on the hands of the people with sovereign power."

Earlier Saturday, Lee wrote that giving up on voting is equivalent to "siding with those who are harming your life and community."

Regarding the president's comments on X, Rep. Jang retorted that Lee himself is an example of the "evil ruler" he had invoked.

"If we give up voting, we are giving Lee, an abuser of his presidential power for the private gain of canceling criminal trials against him, the opportunity to erase all his crimes," Jang said.