More than half of South Koreans have voted in Wednesday’s presidential election, according to the National Election Committee. 

Since polls opened at 6 a.m., voter turnout hit 59.9 percent across 13,964 polling stations and the figure might reach a record 80 percent at this rate, the election watchdog said. The nearly 60 percent turnout so far represents a figure combined with last week’s two-day early voting, which stood at 26.04 percent. 

A total of 42.48 million people, or 82 percent of South Korea’s population, are eligible to vote in the presidential election. Voting will close at 8 p.m.

The hasty election comes after Park Geun-hye, the country's first female president, was impeached in a corruption scandal.