Leader of South Korea's ruling party attacked ahead of presidential election

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The chief of South Korea's ruling party was admitted to the hospital on Monday after a stranger hit him on the head during his campaign for this week's presidential election. 

A tight race between Lee Jae-Myung of the ruling Democratic Party and Yoon Suk-Yeol of the conservative main opposition People Power Party was demonstrated in a 37% turnout in two days of absentee voting that ended on Saturday.

Monday's attack on Song Young-Gil, leader of the Democrats and Lee's election campaign, was done with a small hammer-like tool.

Party officials confirmed that Song was stable and the man was handed to the police. 

"Violence harms democracy, it can never be accepted," the party's presidential candidate, Lee, told another rally in the southeastern port city of Busan and wished Song a rapid recovery.

Elections & COVID-19

The situation occurred as poll authorities hurried to restructure the event following huge lines outside polling stations for coronavirus patients, while other voters received ballots that had already been marked.

During Saturday's special early voting for infected voters, chaos broke out at numerous polling booths, prompting repeated apologies from the National Election Commission (NEC) for failing to maintain a stable and orderly process.

"All the problems resulted from our failure at thorough preparations, and we are fully responsible for falling short," it said in a statement.