S. Korea's voter turnout hits record high since 2000 amid the COVID-19 outbreak

21 총선 오후 18시 기준 63% 웃돌아And now we head over to the National Election Commission which has been keeping track of voter turnout throughout the day.The NEC will confirm the final voter turnout a little later than usual because of the one-hour extended poll openings for those in self-quarantine.But already, we are already seeing a record-breaking number.Kyung-eun, what's the latest?Hi Conn-young, it's been hectic here all day.We are still in the process of getting the final voter turnout.But as of 6 PM, the figure has surpassed 63 percent.That's more than 5 percentage points HIGHER than at the same time from the previous election.But what makes it more significant is that it's well above the FINAL turnout of all previous five elections that were held since the year 2000.Plus, among those elections, only once, in TWO-THOUSAND-AND-FOUR, has the country seen a turnout of over 60 percent.Now, such a high figure is mainly attributed to the early voter turnout, which reached a record high of 26.7 percent.So far, Jeollanam-do Province has the highest turnout with over SIXTY SIX percent,....while Incheon is seeing the lowest at 59-point-five percent.But much attention is also on the southeastern city of Daegu the city hit hardest by COVID-19 in South Korea.Traditionally, Daegu's turnouts are among the country's lowest.But this year, the city is seeing some unprecedented developments, including clinching top spot briefly this morning.It seems like COVID-19 has drawn people closer to politics, not pushed them away.Now we are inching closer to when the polls wrap up, but the official final voter turnout will be not be announced until late at night.Conn-young.