South Koreans cast early votes in election triggered by martial law

Early voting in South Korea's presidential elections begins with scores of people casting their ballot at a polling station in the capital Seoul. All major polls have placed liberal Lee Jae-myung as the clear frontrunner in the presidential race, with a recent Gallup survey showing 49 percent of respondents viewed him as the best candidate.

By midday the early voting turnout rate was 8.7 percent, the highest yet for that time in South Korean election history, according to Seoul's National Election Commission. The overseas voter turnout also reached a historic high, with four-fifths of 1.97 million eligible voters casting their ballots.