Vote counting begins for South Korea's 21st general election
- 4 years ago
제21대 국회의원선거 개표 시작
It's been about an hour since the polls closed, and they've officially started counting the votes.
To fill us in on the counting procedure, our Kim Dami is at one of the five vote counting facilities in Seoul and she joins us live now.
Dami, how are they doing the counting, and when do you think we'll start to see results?
Good evening, Conn-young.
The ballot boxes are continuing to flow in here at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena.
As you can see right behind me, the counting is being done by around 8-hundred people.
In the last general election in 2016, it took around 8 hours to get final results,
but this year it's going to take longer.
Hopefully, we should be able to see some results taking shape by around 2 AM.
In fact, the National Election Commission predicts that for single member districts, vote counting will end... at around 4 AM.
But for the proportional representation seats, counting will go on until 8 AM, and the final results will be announced on Thursday afternoon.
This is because while the district ballots are counted by machine, the PR ballots this year are too long for the machines, so they have to be counted by hand.
They're so long because this year there are 35 parties, which is a record number.
Across the country there are around 64-thousand vote counters, an increase of 35 percent from the last election.
On top of the need for manual vote counting, things are different this time because of the COVID-19 crisis.
ALL the vote counters are wearing masks and gloves while keeping an appropriate distance from one another.
The top priorities this election are sanition and safety, so the polling stations are ventilated on a regular basis. And any volunteer who feels unwell will leave the facility immediately.
For real-time updates, the National Election Commission is also providing the count online.
That's all I have for now, but I'll bring you more updates in our later newscast. Conn-young.
It's been about an hour since the polls closed, and they've officially started counting the votes.
To fill us in on the counting procedure, our Kim Dami is at one of the five vote counting facilities in Seoul and she joins us live now.
Dami, how are they doing the counting, and when do you think we'll start to see results?
Good evening, Conn-young.
The ballot boxes are continuing to flow in here at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena.
As you can see right behind me, the counting is being done by around 8-hundred people.
In the last general election in 2016, it took around 8 hours to get final results,
but this year it's going to take longer.
Hopefully, we should be able to see some results taking shape by around 2 AM.
In fact, the National Election Commission predicts that for single member districts, vote counting will end... at around 4 AM.
But for the proportional representation seats, counting will go on until 8 AM, and the final results will be announced on Thursday afternoon.
This is because while the district ballots are counted by machine, the PR ballots this year are too long for the machines, so they have to be counted by hand.
They're so long because this year there are 35 parties, which is a record number.
Across the country there are around 64-thousand vote counters, an increase of 35 percent from the last election.
On top of the need for manual vote counting, things are different this time because of the COVID-19 crisis.
ALL the vote counters are wearing masks and gloves while keeping an appropriate distance from one another.
The top priorities this election are sanition and safety, so the polling stations are ventilated on a regular basis. And any volunteer who feels unwell will leave the facility immediately.
For real-time updates, the National Election Commission is also providing the count online.
That's all I have for now, but I'll bring you more updates in our later newscast. Conn-young.