66 percent of the eligible voters had cast ballots - The governing party won a landslide in parliamentary elections

South Korea held national elections amid Coronavirus pandemic on Wednesday (April 15th 2020). It was one of the world's first nationwide elections that are held during the Coronavirus pandemic.

 

People voted in the parliamentary elections wearing masks and keeping the distance of at least 1 meters away from other voters. Despite the Coronavirus outbreak, the voting turnout has reached to the highest level in a national election since 2000 as approximately 66 percent of the eligible registered voters had cast their ballots on Wednesday. 

 

President Moon Jae-In's governing party which is the left-leaning Democratic party and its satellite party the Democrats which is created for the proportional representation system swept an overwhelming victory by taking nearly 180 seats of the 300-member National Assembly. The Democratic party won 163 seats and a satellite party the Democrats won 17 seats in the 300-member National Assembly. This accounts for three-fifths of total seats. 

 

As the government has tightened its measures and successfully handled and kept the number of daily new cases of Coronavirus infections below 50 for past few days, president Moon Jae-In's approval rate surged to over 50 percent recently.

 

The main conservative opposition United Future party and its own sister party (Future Korea Party) suffered a crushing defeat by winning 103 seats. They were leading in traditionally conservative areas such as in Daegu, Ulsan, Busan and North and South Gyeongsang provinces only. 

 

 

 

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[NEWS: What's happening in Korea?] - Voting for parliamentary elections on April 15

Voting for parliamentary elections on April 15