140,000 High School Seniors Eligible to Vote This Year... 'Election Law Guidelines' Established and Distributed

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] This year, the number of "student voters" who are currently enrolled in high school and will exercise their voting rights in the April general election has been counted at a total of 140,000. The government has decided to create and distribute guidelines to ensure that these students do not violate the Public Official Election Act.

On the 8th, the Ministry of Education announced that it will establish a permanent cooperative system for election education by forming a joint promotion team with 17 metropolitan and provincial offices of education nationwide.

According to the Ministry of Education, among the students currently registered in the National Education Information System (NEIS), those born on or before April 16, 2002, who can participate in the election on April 15, have been identified as 140,000. This corresponds to about 30% of the 450,000 students who will be in their third year of high school this year. Most are third-year high school students, but a small number of older second-year students, due to deferred admission or other reasons, are also included.

An official from the Ministry of Education explained, "The political circles and the Central Election Commission had estimated that there would be about 50,000 to 60,000 third-year high school students newly acquiring voting rights, but that was only an estimate," adding, "There may be an error margin of about 2% due to foreign students without voting rights or students with dual enrollment status (such as hospital school or juvenile detention center students)."

The joint promotion team for election education will prepare support measures to guarantee the rights of student voters in schools and enable them to exercise their voting rights properly. This measure was taken in response to concerns raised that, due to the lack of standards and cases of "election campaigning within schools," student voters might unintentionally violate election laws.

The Ministry of Education plans to develop teaching and learning materials for election education that can be used in related subjects and creative experiential activities by the end of February, before the new semester begins, to support election education. Additionally, to broaden understanding of the Public Official Election Act, materials from the Election Commission, such as case examples of political laws, will be provided to schools. Follow-up measures will also be discussed with related organizations such as the Election Commission to ensure the protection of students' suffrage rights.

Deputy Prime Minister Yoo Eun-hye said, "It is a meaningful change that students have gained suffrage as full members of society," and added, "We will carefully prepare to ensure that students' voting rights are guaranteed in the school environment."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.