Live from early voting polling station in Seoul

Two days of early voting have begun in South Korea to elect the country's 21st president.

Voters across the country are already making their way to polling stations 5 days earlier than the actual Election Day, and our Ahn Sung-jin is at one of them here in Seoul.

Good morning, Sung-jin.

1. Sung-jin, which of the country's 3-thousand 5-hundred-69 polling stations are you at?

Right, so Dami I'm currently in front of an early voting location in Yeoksam-dong, Gangnam-gu district, an area bustling with offices and business people.

I've been out here since early this morning, and we saw an influx of voters coming in to vote before going to work, so many in fact that officials needed to control the line of people which extended well beyond the front of the polling station.

"I'm 20 years old so this is my first time to vote. I hope someone who can bring national unity and enhance people's livelihoods becomes the next president."

"I've been waiting to vote, and I wanted to do so as soon as I could. I came early before work because I couldn't wait out of frustration."

So far there haven't been any notable issues with the voting process going smoothly.

For this presidential election, there are more than 3-thousand-5-hundred polling stations nationwide with around 420 of them in Seoul.

2. Now, Sung-jin, tell us how early voting works.

For this early presidential voting, the National Election Commission has made extra effort to realize a fair and transparent election, right?

To first explain how early voting works, early voting takes place for two days, Thursday and Friday from 6 AM till 6 PM.

Voters must be over 18 and bring government issued ID.

Turnout in previous early voting in 2017 was 26.1% while in 2022 it was 36.9% a record-high figure.

Although we did see an increase in turnout in 2022, with voting taking place on a weekday, unlike previously, we may see a lower number.

The process of verifying vote-counting officials will be strengthened, after accusations in 2020 that Chinese voting officials during the general election may have rigged votes. The NEC emphasized that it will be hiring all 260-thousand voting and counting officials as Korean nationals to shut down any suspicions of election fraud.

Ballot boxes will be monitored around the clock, and the NEC will also operate a "Fair Election Observation Team" for the first time to observe the entire election process from voting to counting.

The NEC also announced that in this presidential election, the number of voters per hour will be disclosed by each polling station for the first time.

3. It's past 10 AM, which means four hours have passed since the early voting began.

How many South Koreans have voted early so far?

Right now as of 9AM, at the poll station I'm at 1,722 people have voted, and the total for Seoul is 293,852.

Other major cities like Busan saw ______ people, Daegu _______ and Sejong _____.

The Democratic Party spokesperson said that their party's candidate Lee Jae-myung will vote in Seoul this morning. The People Power's Party Kim Moon-soo is also believed to be voting early.

That's all I have for now, and I will be back with updated figures for our later newscast.

Alright Sung-jin, thanks for the coverage.

That was our Ahn Sung-jin at one of the early voting polling stations here Seoul.