# Early voting opens in South Korea’s presidential race amid post-martial-law politics
*Event date: 2025-05-29*
Early voting in South Korea’s presidential election began on May 29, drawing immediate attention because the contest was shaped by the political fallout from former leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s failed attempt to suspend civilian rule in 2024.
Voting was open on May 29 and 30, ahead of election day on June 3. By midday on the first day, turnout in early voting had reached 8.7 percent, the highest ever recorded at that point in South Korean election history, according to the National Election Commission. Overseas voting was also unusually strong, with roughly four-fifths of 1.97 million eligible overseas voters already having cast ballots.
The campaign itself was framed by the aftermath of martial law and impeachment. The Straits Times report said South Koreans were trying to put months of turmoil behind them after Yoon’s declaration of martial law, which led to his impeachment and a chain of acting presidents. At the same time, the export-driven economy was dealing with external trade tensions and weak domestic demand.
Polls gave liberal Lee Jae-myung a clear lead. A recent Gallup survey put him at 49 percent, well ahead of conservative Kim Moon-soo at 35 percent. Lee, speaking after voting in Seoul, used the occasion to argue that ballot participation mattered more than force, while Kim framed early voting as safe and urged supporters not to skip it.
The report said early voting has become more popular in South Korea in recent years, with 37 percent of voters casting ballots before election day in the 2022 presidential contest. That trend suggests that the record first-day figure was not just a reaction to the current race but also part of a longer-term change in how South Koreans vote.
Still, the political context this year was unusual. Lee played a visible role in resisting the martial law push last year, while Kim emerged as a conservative standard-bearer after Yoon’s collapse. Whoever wins will inherit major structural problems, including a slowdown, very low birth rates and the strategic pressure of balancing relations with the United States and China.
The early vote, in other words, was not just a procedural milestone. It was an early referendum on how the country wants to move beyond a constitutional crisis.
The record turnout is notable because it suggests the crisis politics around the vote were motivating participation rather than depressing it. Early voting often benefits convenience-minded voters, but in this case it also seems to have given people a way to register a view on martial law, impeachment and the future of the conservative movement.
The campaign’s leading figures embodied two different responses to that crisis. Lee positioned himself as the politician who helped block the suspension of civilian rule, while Kim tried to reassure skeptical conservatives about the early-voting system. That contrast helps explain why the first day of voting mattered so much.
If turnout stays strong through the rest of early voting, it will confirm that the election has become a pressure valve for public anger as much as a routine contest. That would suit neither party perfectly: Lee benefits from momentum, but Kim can still argue that conservatives must show up in numbers if they want a chance to reverse the polls. In that sense, the first day of voting already carried strategic weight.
