S.Korean Covid-19 patients allowed to vote by mail in parliamentary polls

An official from the National Election Commission checks posters for candidates of upcoming parliamentary election in Seoul, South Korea, April 1, 2020. - Yonhap

SEOUL (Reuters): South Korea will allow coronavirus patients to vote by mail or as an absentee in this month's parliamentary elections, as campaigning started on Thursday (April 2) and the country grappled with a steady rise in new infections.

Voters will go to the polls on April 15 to elect 300 members of the National Assembly for the next four years, posing challenges over how to prevent a spread of the coronavirus at polling places while ensuring people's right to vote.