High early voting turnout for next week’s by-elections has prompted both the ruling and opposition camps to claim it as an indication that the polls will swing in their favor.

According to the National Election Commission, 2.49 million eligible voters, or 20.54 percent of the total 12.16 million, cast their votes during the two-day early voting period that ended 6 p.m. Saturday.

The figure is the highest advance voting turnout in South Korea’s by-election history, exceeding the previous high of 19.4 percent during the Oct. 29 by-elections in 2014.

Seoul and Busan citizens are voting for new mayors and 19 other public officials on Wednesday, after the mayoral seats of both major cities have remained vacant for months. The early voting turnout reached 21.95 percent for Seoul and 18.65 percent for Busan.

Park Young-sun of the ruling Democratic Party is competing against former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon of the main opposition People Power Party for an effectively a two-way race for the Seoul mayoral seat.

Kim Young-choon of the ruling camp is up against Park Heong-joon of the main opposition party for the Busan mayoral race. Terms for both mayoral seats will end June 30, 2022.

The highest early voting turnout was largely accredited within the political world as the result of increased public interest in the two-way battle between those wishing to keep the ruling camp in power and those wanting to challenge the ruling party for mismanagement.

The election has also drawn large public interest as it could serve as a prologue for the presidential race slated for next year.

Traditionally, voters in their 20s and 30s tend to prefer early voting, so a higher early voter turnout has been considered a boon for the ruling liberal bloc and candidates of the Democratic Party of Korea.

This time, however, it is hard to predict as many young voters seem to have turned their support to the conservatives, according to recent poll results.

Both ruling and opposition parties have taken the record-high early voter turnout as a positive sign in their favor, cementing their assurance toward victory for the mayoral seats.

The ruling camp saw the highest by-election early voting turnout as people’s growing interest towards helping the Democratic Party remain in power.

“We thank people’s passion towards voting to protect Seoul mayoral candidate Park Young-sun and Busan mayoral candidate Kim Young-choon,” Democratic Party Spokesperson Shin Yeong-dae said in a statement Saturday.

“People have voted for candidates who can judge People Power Party candidates riddled with suspicions, warmly look after the lives of citizens and achieve economic development.”

The People Power Party instead called out the results as a sign of people’s anger towards the ruling party and the government.

“We thank the people for expressing their serious thoughts onto the election,” People Power Party spokesperson Bae Jun-young said in a statement Saturday.

“(The high early voting turnout) shows that voters’ anger towards the ruling administration has reached its peak. Heavy downpours or concerns of COVID-19 infections could not stop the march of eligible voters looking to change their lives by punishing the hypocritical government.”

By Ko Jun-tae (ko.juntae@heraldcorp.com)