SEOUL -- South Koreans rushed to an early voting for a snap presidential election, triggered by a botched martial law bid that boosted desire for transfer of power.

Voter turnout hit a record high of 19.58 percent on the first day of the two-day early voting on Thursday, surpassing the previous high of 17.57 percent in the 2022 presidential election.

Without changes in trend, the final turnout of the early voting was expected to top the record high of 36.93 percent tallied in 2022.

Flocking to vote indicated people's aspiration for the transfer of power as it took a whopping six months to punish the short-lived martial law imposition through the presidential by-election on June 3.

Former conservative President Yoon Suk-yeol declared an emergency martial law on the night of Dec 3 last year, but it was revoked by the National Assembly hours later.

Yoon was apprehended in the presidential office and indicted under detention as a suspected ringleader of insurrection in January, but he was released in March before being permanently removed from office by the constitutional court on April 4.

The liberal Democratic Party saw the record voter turnout as people's desire to end the "insurrection" bloc, while the conservative People Power Party said the high voting rate was in favor of its candidate.

According to local pollster Flower Research's survey of 2,011 voters from Monday to Tuesday, 67.7 percent supported the transfer of power while 28.8 percent favored the extended presidency of the conservative bloc.

Lee Jae-myung, presidential candidate of the Democratic Party, secured 50.3 percent of support, holding a big lead over his archrival Kim Moon-soo, the People Power Party candidate who took 32.7 percent.

The civil rights lawyer-turned-politician maintained his position as presidential frontrunner following the martial law declaration. He lost the 2022 presidential election by the country's narrowest margin of 0.73 percentage points.

Lee Jun-seok of the minor conservative New Reform Party, who has rebuffed the People Power Party's proposal for a single candidacy, garnered 9.4 percent of support, the survey showed.

The survey, the last one as relevant polls conducted during a week before the election day cannot be made public, had plus and minus 2.2 percentage points in margin of error with a 95-percent confidence level.