Voting is underway in local elections in S. Korea on Wednesday. (Yonhap)

Voter turnout for South Korea's local elections stood at 50 percent as of 6 p.m. Wednesday, as polls closed nationwide for ordinary voters, according to the country's election authorities.

This is 10.2 percent points lower than the level recorded at the same time in the previous local elections in 2018.

Voting by COVID-19 positive voters and those in quarantine commenced at 6:30 p.m. and will last until 7:30 p.m. 

Some 20.62 percent of the registered voters cast their ballots during the two-day early voting last week.