It's local election day here in Korea.
Polling stations around the nation opened within the last couple of minutes and will remain open for the next twelve hours.
Voters are casting their ballots for the over 39-hundred district and provincial governor,... councilor.... and education chief posts up for grabs.
Our Song Ji-sun is standing by at a polling station in Seoul's central Jongno-gu District.
Ji-sun, the polls have just opened... are people already trickling in to make their selections?
Good morning, Mark. As you just mentioned polling stations across the country have just opened their doors.
It's still quite early in the morning, and so far, we've seen mostly elderly citizens coming in here to cast their ballots, but the turnout will gradually rise... as we head closer to noon.
Also keep in mind is that unlike the early voting period -- when people could vote at any polling station, anywhere in the country -- today, voters must head to the designated polling center, assigned to them according to their home mailing address.
It's been especially hard to predict how the races will turn out, this time around,... with the adoption of the early voting period... and factoring in the impacts of the Sewol-ho ferry disaster.
Here in Seoul, the ratio of those in their 20s and 30s are the highest in the nation... at 39-point-7 percent -- slightly outnumbering those in their 50s... standing at 39-point-6 percent.
The young vote was also the highest during the early election, accounting for nearly 16 percent... of the total 11-and-a-half percent early turnout.
Younger generations are usually considered progressive while the elderly are more conservative... so voting numbers between these two groups... will be one of the deciding factors -- in whether incumbent mayor Park Won-soon of the opposition party will continue at his post... or ruling Saenuri party's multi-term lawmaker Chung Mong-joon will beat the odds.
I'm Song Ji-sun reporting live from Jongno-gu District in Seoul.
