Voting in Korea’s general elections got underway at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, with 8 percent of voters casting their ballots as of 9 a.m.

In this year’s general elections, 253 constituency and 47 proportional representative seats are being contested.

According to the National Election Commission, just over 3.53 million of 43.99 million voters had cast their ballots by 9 a.m. in the voting that continues until 6 p.m.

The early voting participation rate will be included in the overall figure from 1 p.m. This year’s general elections saw record early voter turnout with 26.69 percent of voters casting their ballots on Friday and Saturday.

Results of exit polls conducted by the country’s three terrestrial broadcasters will be announced at 6:15 p.m. Final results are expected Thursday afternoon, with ballots for proportional representation being counted by hand. Due to the introduction of proportional representation parties in this year’s elections, the ballot for parties measures over 48 centimeters, making it impossible to be counted by machine.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)