SEOUL, South Korea — Boosted by the announcement this week of a summit with rival North Korea, President Kim Dae-jung awaited results Thursday from parliamentary elections that were seen as a referendum on his mandate.
Early returns showed a race too close to call, with three leading television stations reporting the opposition barely ahead of the ruling camp after half the vote had been counted.
Exit polls put Kim's Millennium Democratic Party in the lead, although it was not expected to win an absolute majority in the 273-seat Parliament. Many early returns came from traditional strongholds of the opposition Grand National Party.
Election officials predicted a record low turnout of about 60 percent.
Many of South Korea's 33.5 million eligible voters are weary of corruption scandals and bickering among legislators. Bus terminals and train stations also were crowded with people who used the national holiday to go picnicking. Some people wearing backpacks stopped to cast ballots before heading for mountains.
Villagers voted in an eastern coastal region that has been ravaged by forest fires for a week, but the turnout was lower than usual. Thousands of local officials and army reservists were ordered to vote early and join in fighting the fires.
The oldest eligible voter, 118-year-old Kim Sam-rye, cast her ballot at an apartment complex in Hwasun, a southern town.
"I urged my grandmother to vote, thinking this might be her last chance to do so," Kim Mi-ra, her 41-year-old granddaughter, told the Yonhap news agency.
At stake are 273 seats in the unicameral parliament, where the number of seats has been cut by 26 to save money. Of those, 227 seats will be decided by direct vote and 46 by a proportional vote.
The news Monday that North Korea and South Korea had agreed to hold the first-ever summit between their leaders in June jolted election debate in the final days of campaigning.
The Grand National Party, which is the majority party in the outgoing Parliament, accused the government of timing the announcement to win votes. The government denied it.
"The influence of the summit on voters will be limited," said Kang Young-shik, 29, a graduate school student.
"Young people like me don't count the summit as an important factor in making up their minds."
But the summit could bring the ruling party votes from those with relatives in North Korea, who hope it will bring progress on resuming family reunifications, halted since 1985.
Millions of North Koreans went to South Korea after the 1945 division of the Korean peninsula and during the 1950-53 Korean War, and most have lost touch with their families in the North.
Kim has said family reunions will top the agenda of his summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, to be held in the North's capital, Pyongyang.
Reform of South Korea's banking sector and family owned conglomerates is another pressing issue for Kim's government.
About a dozen of the conglomerates collapsed under mounds of debts in 1997, forcing South Korea to accept a record $58 billion bailout package from the International Monetary Fund.
"The summit with North Korea and the economic recovery would be among the biggest achievements" of President Kim's administration, said Kim Young-hee, a waitress who voted for the ruling party.