South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic Party won a landslide victory in parliamentary elections held amid the COVID-19 pandemic, preliminary results revealed on Thursday.

The preliminary results from the National Election Commission showed that the Democratic Party secured 163 directly-contested constituency seats, while its sister Platform Party gained 17 proportional representations (PR) slots, according to the media report.

The quadrennial elections for the 300 members of the National Assembly were held across the country on Wednesday to let voters cast ballots for 253 constituency seats and 47 PR slots.

It marked the first time since the constitution was amended in 1987 to end the past military dictatorship and adopt democratic elections that a single political party won three-fifths of the total parliamentary seats.

The main conservative opposition United Future Party and its satellite party garnered 84 constituency seats and 19 PR seats.

Despite the pandemic scare, it is reported that the virus has failed to deter voters, with predictions of a record turnout by the time all the votes for the 300-seat national assembly have been cast on Wednesday evening.

On Friday, more than 5 million people cast their ballots early – a record high since advance voting was introduced seven years ago.

The elections were held at a time of the COVID-19 outbreak across the world that delayed elections in other countries such as Britain, France and Australia.

The election will decide control of parliament, and public mandate on President Moon Jae-in’s ability to push through his agenda in the final two years of his administration, including a minimum wage, policies aimed at creating jobs, and continued re-engagement with North Korea.

South Korea has won praise from the World Health Organization for its successful flattening of the curve, with more than a dozen world leaders seeking Seoul’s advice on quarantine measures and requesting test kits.

The country has reported 10,613 confirmed cases so far, while 229 people have died.

Meanwhile, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases around the world topped 2 million on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins, with more than 128,000 confirmed deaths.