Seoul: South Korean voters wore masks and moved slowly between lines of tape at polling stations on Wednesday to elect lawmakers in the shadows of the spreading coronavirus.
The government resisted calls to postpone the parliamentary elections billed as a midterm referendum for President Moon Jae-in, who enters the final years of his term grappling with a historic public health crisis that is unleashing massive economic shock.
While South Korea’s electorate is deeply divided along ideological and generational lines and regional loyalties, recent surveys showed growing support for Moon and his liberal party, reflecting the public’s approval of an aggressive test-and-quarantine program so far credited for lower fatality rates compared to worst-hit areas in China, Europe and North America.
The long lines that snaked around public offices and schools followed record-high participation in early voting held on Friday and Saturday, seemed to defy expectations of low voter turnout in the middle of an active campaign to minimize social contact to slow infections.
Around 87,000 of South Korea’s 172,000 eligible voters overseas were also denied absentee voting after polling was ruled out in dozens of diplomatic offices worldwide as the pandemic grew.
The voting in South Korea draws contrast with an upended election cycle in the United States, where some states pushed back presidential primaries or switched to voting by mail.
To hold the parliamentary elections as scheduled, South Korean election officials and health authorities drew up a deliberate set of preventive measures to reduce risks of the virus being transmitted.