How does it affect democracy when so few vote?
An election official monitors the empty voting booths in Samcheong-dong, Seoul, on April 9. [YONHAP]
Voter turnout this year fell just short of 46 percent, and pundits said, correctly, it was the lowest the country has seen so far. This means that more than half of those eligible to vote did not go to the polls on election day this year.
The turnout was even lower than what was expected in the regional elections. This was notable because the general elections usually see the second-highest turnout, with the presidential election earning the highest number of votes. Usually regional elections, in which voters pick their county and district officials, have the lowest turnout. In 2002, the regional elections had a turnout of 48.9 percent.
Another way to gauge how low turnout was for this year’s National Assembly elections is to compare this year’s figures to those for the 2004 National Assembly elections, which had a 60.6 percent turnout. In the December 2007 presidential election, turnout was 70.8 percent.
All in all, critics called it “shocking” that turnout fell short of half of those eligible to vote. This means the country is addressing a critical moment in democracy with low participation, critics warned.
Is that really the case?
Voting rights are the backbone of indirect democracy, or the representative democracy that our society uses. Representative democracy is the form of government that most countries have. This means that the people give authority to a number of policy makers to exercise their rights for them.
One way to understand why critics are so concerned about the recent figures is by looking at the French experience. In 2002, 16 candidates ran in the presidential election. Eventually, the front-runners were narrowed down to Lionel Jospin and Jacques Chirac — or so they thought.
Many chose to neglect going to the polls on election day because they thought the election results from the first round were a done deal. But the results were stunning: Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen, an accused xenophobe and anti-Semite, not Jospin, emerged as the two front-runners.
Officials from the National Election Commission tally votes in Seoul’s Jung District on April 9. [NEWSIS]
When the Korean media reported that most of the public had turned its back on the 2008 general election, it was a reminder of what happened in France. The media said society should be concerned that the public in general was becoming politically apathetic. Some even blamed the good weather that day, despite a bad forecast, for the low turnout. Television broadcasts showed many popular spots around town bustling with people on picnics. In contrast, the polling booths were quiet. In many newspapers, articles quoted people who said they chose not to vote because they did not like any of the candidates. Some said they did not know any of the candidates anyway, and asked why they should vote for someone you could barely name?
But if these disgruntled non-voters had been in Australia, they would have been fined for not voting, according to Kang Won-taek, a political scientist at Soongsil University.
But Kang said the Australian way may not work for Korea.
“It’s true that voting is both a right and a duty for those who live in a democratic society,” Kang said. “But if we start making people vote then some opponents to the policy will ask why the country is making it mandatory to vote when there is no one qualified to win.”
One voter incentive Korea implemented this year was to pass out vouchers to those who voted. With the voucher, voters could get a 2,000 won discount to state-run parks, museums and exhibitions in April. Still, that policy did not work very well.
The election watchdog agency said it was surprised that the incentive did not work.
“It was the first time we’d implemented an incentive policy for those that voted and we got terrible results,” an official at the National Election Commission said. “It’s time to think about a possible electronic voting system or implementing mandatory voting.”
Another official said placing voting booths in popular spots around town would be one way to raise the turnout.
“There is the possibility of implementing touch-screen balloting instead of the conventional [paper] ones if we want to increase the number of voting booths in the country,” said Ahn Hyo-soo, the press attaché at the National Election Commission. “That way, we will have people who stop by at the polls while they are out enjoying the sun.”
The drop in the voting rate was also quite large. Compared to the previous general election in 2004, there was a 14.6 percent drop this year. The gap between elections has never been so wide, according to the National Election Commission. Even when turnout reached a record low in 2000, the drop in turnout was just 6.7 percent compared to turnout for the previous election in 1996. Why was the drop so big this time?
One reason, said the National Election Commission, was because political parties finished their candidate nominations much later than usual due to interparty disputes.
The postponement gave candidates a late start in campaigning and voters had less time to find out who they were.
Second, there was no particular political agenda to attract voter interest, except for the fact that the political parties were in the midst of disputes.
Third, the election watchdog said voters were tired of the election process because it was held almost immediately after the presidential election just four months ago.
There also were incidents when some candidates and their campaign workers were caught giving bribes to voters. Such irregular behavior turned the ordinary public away from the election.
“It was impossible to get the public interested in voting this year,” said Kim Hyeong-joon, a professor at Myongji University. He suggested revising the election law and using the United States as a model. There, parties have a limited number of days to select their candidates. “We should try to revise election law so that parties can name their candidates earlier,” Kim said.
By Lee Min-a Staff Reporter/ Namkoong Wook JoongAng Ilbo [mina@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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