Tag: Voting

The PPP has once again failed to make any strong gains in the Korean parliament:

This combined photo shows officials of the main opposition Democratic Party (L), including it leader Lee Jae-myung, clap at the National Assembly in Seoul on April 10, 2024. In contrast, officials of the ruling People Power Party, including its interim leader Han Dong-hoon, look gloomy at the National Assembly in Seoul on April 10, 2024. (Yonhap)

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP) was certain to retain a majority in the National Assembly in Wednesday’s general elections in a major setback for the ruling People Power Party (PPP) and President Yoon Suk Yeol.

Contrary to TV exit polls, however, the broader opposition bloc was expected to fall short of a two-thirds majority or at least 200 seats as the PPP was expected to secure about 110 seats in the 300-member National Assembly.

With more than 90 percent of the ballots counted in 254 constituencies as of 3 a.m. Thursday, the DP was leading in 160 districts, including many in the Seoul metropolitan region, while the PPP was ahead only in 91 districts, mostly in its stronghold in the country’s southeast.

Up for grabs are 300 seats in the National Assembly, with 46 of them to be allocated to the parties according to their proportion of the vote. Of the votes cast for proportional seats, more than 60 percent have been counted.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but if President Yoon was looking for any electorial mandate for his policies from the election he clearly did not get it.

With how small cameras are getting today this guy wasn’t trying very hard to hide his spy cameras with something this obvious:

This photo shows a spy camera found at an early voting polling station in Yangsan, 301 kilometers southeast of Seoul, provided by the South Gyeongsang Province police authority on March 29, 2024.

Police said Saturday they have requested an arrest warrant for a YouTuber suspected of installing spy cameras at some 40 early voting stations ahead of the April 10 parliamentary elections.

Officials at Incheon Nonhyeon Police Station said the suspect, a man in his 40s, allegedly placed hidden cameras at about 40 early polling stations in major cities, including Seoul, Busan, Incheon, Ulsan and Daegu.

The interior ministry earlier said spy cameras had been found at 26 early voting stations as of Friday.

The suspect reportedly told the police that he wanted to monitor the National Election Commission’s manipulation of turnout rates for early voting.

The man is also under suspicion of having installed hidden cameras in polling stations during the 2022 presidential election and the by-election for the mayorship of Gangseo District in Seoul in October, according to officials.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

This is another sign that Korea’s conservative People Power Party continues to be on the rise in the wake of the election of Yoon Suk-yeol:

Leaders of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) on Thursday offered to quit the interim leadership committee en masse following the party’s crushing defeat in this week’s local elections.

Rep. Yoon Ho-jung and Park Ji-hyun, the DP’s co-interim chiefs, announced that all eight members of the party’s emergency leadership committee will step down to take responsibility for the defeat in Wednesday’s local elections.

The PPP won 12 out of 17 key races for big city mayors and provincial governors, including Seoul, while the DP won only five key races — three in its stronghold of the Jeolla provinces, as well as Gyeonggi and Jeju governorships.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but of note in this election is that Lee Jae-myung who ran against President Yoon was elected to a National Assembly seat out of Incheon and former Presidential Candidate who sided with Yoon was elected to a National Assembly seat in Bundang.

Congratulations to Yoon Suk-yeol on winning an extremely close ROK Presidential election:

Yoon Suk-yeol of the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) was elected as Korea’s next president early Thursday morning, narrowly beating his liberal rival.    
   
Yoon, the first former prosecutor to be elected as president, stressed a message of national unity and cooperation with the opposition in a speech at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, shortly after his victory was ascertained.    
   
In Korea’s closest presidential election, frontrunners Yoon and Lee Jae-myung of the ruling Democratic Party (DP) were neck-and-neck in exits polls Wednesday evening, making a victor too close to call nearly all the votes were tallied around 4 a.m. Thursday.  
   
At 4:05 a.m., with 98.15 percent of the ballots counted, Yoon earned 48.59 percent of votes, effectively confirming his victory in the 20th presidential election. Lee received 47.8 percent of votes, just 0.8 percentage points less than Yoon.   

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link, but it will now be interesting to see what position Ahn Cheol-soo receives because it is arguable that his coalition with Yoon put him over the top to win the Presidency.

Additionally we will need to wait and see what the reaction from North Korea will be. Considering Yoon’s hardline rhetoric towards North Korea during the campaign it seems the Kim regime is likely to go bigger on whatever provocation they have planned. There has been reports of North Korea preparing for a nuclear test so this could be their response if preparations are complete. If not another ICBM or other missile tests would be a near term way for them to respond to Yoon’s election.

Via a reader tip comes this news of irregularities once again with the early voting processes. If Yoon Suk-yeol loses a close election the ineptitude of the early voting will likely lead to mass protests. Hopefully this doesn’t happen, but clearly mass early voting and absentee ballots are once again damaging the creditability of an election:

Early voting for COVID-19 patients in the presidential election has ended with claims of election fraud, as voters alleged the National Election Commission (NEC) mishandled ballots at polling sites across the country.

Rival parties slammed the NEC’s “unpreparedness,” warning that polling station workers’ unprofessional handling of the early voting could trigger another vote-rigging controversy, following a previous conspiracy theory surrounding the 2020 National Assembly elections.  

On Sunday, the NEC released a statement on the previous day’s early voting for COVID-19 patients across the country in which it apologized for “any inconvenience caused to voters.”

“The voting method for COVID-19 patients was fully in compliance with laws and rules, with the presence of election observers recommended by political parties,” the NEC said in the statement.

“However, we should admit that there were shortcomings in carrying out COVID-19 patients’ early voting due to the unprecedentedly high turnout and limits in personnel and facilities.” The apology came after media reports and social media postings about the NEC’s mishandling of COVID-19 patients’ votes across the country on Saturday.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Here is an interesting issue that I doubt the Moon administration would do anything to change:

Growing anti-China sentiment is leading some to call for taking away the right of foreign permanent residents to vote here. 

The move is intended to target Chinese residents, as they make up the majority of eligible immigrant voters in Korea. Recent disputes have pitted the people of the two countries against each other over various cultural issues, including recent claims coming from China that some elements of Korean culture, including kimchi, hanbok and samgyetang, originated there.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but the article says there are 121,806 foreign residents in Korea and 80% of them are Chinese.

Here are the restrictions in place for this week’s parliamentary elections:

As for Wednesday’s general elections, the government announced that hospitalized patients and quarantined people with symptoms will not be allowed to cast a vote, but that asymptomatic people under quarantine will be allowed.

Those who are quarantined and do not show any symptoms Wednesday will be allowed to leave their homes from 5:20 p.m. to arrive at their polling station by 6 p.m. On their way, they must wear a face mask and either walk or drive and not use public transport. Once they arrive at the polling station, they will wait in a separate location until other voters finish casting their ballots.  

Once the other voters have completely left the station after 6 p.m., asymptomatic people under quarantine will place their votes, after which they must return back home by 7 p.m. The government warned that anyone who wanders off during this time will be severely punished. Quarantined people who wish to vote must respond to a text message sent by their local government office Monday or Tuesday, or in case they were told to self-quarantine after Tuesday noon, contact their local government office to inform their will to vote.

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Via a reader tip comes news that a Korean national with a US Green Card was recently convicted for illegally voting:

A permanent resident in North Carolina will not face prison time after she was illegally allowed to vote during three separate elections.

Hyo Suk George, 70, was charged with illegal voting by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security after she reportedly voted in 2008, 2010 and 2016 in Columbus County. Instead of sentencing George to six months in prison, U.S. District Judge Terrence Boyle fined George $100.
George arrived in the United States from South Korea in 1989. She got a green card in 1995 and has worked in housekeeping and fast food, her federal public defender Sherri Alspaugh said. She registered to vote “next to the senior center” after taking the advice of a town council member, according to the News & Observer.

In his ruling, Boyle also expressed frustration towards the elections board in Whiteville, North Carolina, because it allowed George to register to vote using her green card, Social Security number and driver’s license, the News & Observer reported.
“So they see a green card and say, ‘That’s OK’ because they don’t know what they’re doing,” the judge said. “They ought to be a little smarter than that.”

Newsweek

You can read more at the link, but this makes me wonder how much of this illegal voter registration is going on?

Also it shows the weakness of voter ID laws at polling stations when green card holders are allowed to register and polling stations usually require a driver’s license to vote which green card holders can get.