South Korea's ruling liberal party secures a resounding victory in parliamentary elections, which had the highest turnout in nearly three decades despite the coronavirus sickening thousands and forcing social distancing at polling places.
Lee Hae-chan, left, Chairperson of the Election Campaign Committee of the ruling Democratic Party, places a sticker onto one of the party's winning candidates' photographs for parliamentary election at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, April 15, 2020. South Korean voters wore masks and moved slowly between lines of tape at polling stations on Wednesday to elect lawmakers in the shadows of the spreading coronavirus.
The comfortable majority will likely embolden President Moon Jae-in’s government to pursue its key domestic and foreign objectives, such as reviving diplomacy with nuclear-armed rival North Korea, while it grapples with a historic public health crisis that is shuttering businesses and threatening livelihoods.
More than 17 million South Koreans voted on Wednesday. When combined with the 11.8 million early and mailed-in votes, turnout was 66.2%, the highest since 71.9% turnout in a 1992 general election, the National Election Commission said. But surveys ahead of the polls indicated growing support, reflecting public approval of an aggressive test-and-quarantine program credited with lowering fatality rates for COVID-19 compared to China and some places in Europe and North America. As of Thursday, South Korea had more than 10,600 people infected with 229 confirmed deaths.
Masks were worn by voters and poll workers. A meter of social distancing space was marked from nearby streets all the way to the ballot booths. Voters who passed a fever screening were given sanitizing gel and disposable plastic gloves before entering booths. Anyone with a fever was whisked to a separate area to vote.
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