A man casts his early vote for the April 10 parliamentary election at a polling station in Seoul, South Korea, April 5, 2024. (PHOTO / AP)

SEOUL - South Korea's early voting turnout for parliamentary elections hit a record high of 31.28 percent, the country's election watchdog data showed Saturday.

Of 44,280,011 eligible voters, 13,849,043 voters cast their ballots at 3,565 polling stations across the country for the past two days, according to the National Election Commission (NEC).

The turnout of overseas voting, which had run for six days through Monday among domestic voters staying abroad, hit a new high of 62.8 percent

It was higher than 26.69 percent tallied in the previous 2020 parliamentary elections and marked the highest turnout for any parliamentary elections since the early voting was first adopted in the 2014 local elections for the nationwide election.

The upcoming parliamentary elections were scheduled for April 10.

The turnout of overseas voting, which had run for six days through Monday among domestic voters staying abroad, hit a new high of 62.8 percent. The overseas voting was introduced in 2012.

According to the Gallup Korea survey commissioned by the NEC, 78.9 percent replied that they will go to the polls "without fail."

It was almost unchanged compared to 79.0 percent for the parliamentary elections four years ago.

The result was based on a poll of 1,511 voters conducted on last Sunday and Monday. It had plus and minus 2.5 percentage points in margin of error with a 95-percent confidence level.