Overseas Voting Rate at 23.8%... Impact of Suspension of Overseas Election Operations

On the 2nd, the official start day of the 21st National Assembly election campaign, officials are conducting a lottery to select ballot observers at the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The National Election Commission announced on the 7th that overseas voting for the 21st National Assembly election was conducted from the 1st to the 6th at 85 diplomatic missions and 91 polling stations, with 40,858 out of 171,959 overseas voters (voter turnout of 23.8%) participating.

Due to the global spread of COVID-19, the Commission decided to suspend overseas election operations at 91 diplomatic missions in 55 countries and shortened the overseas voting period at 36 missions. The number of overseas voters in suspended regions was 87,269, accounting for 50.7%.

As a result, the lowest voter turnout in history was recorded. The turnout was 45.7% in the 19th general election and 41.4% in the 20th general election.

Overseas ballots are returned to Korea under the responsibility of the head of the diplomatic mission via diplomatic pouches, etc., and upon arrival at Incheon Airport, they are handed over to the National Election Commission in the presence of observers recommended by the political parties forming the National Assembly negotiation groups. Then, they are sent by registered mail to the relevant district, city, or county election commissions for counting together with domestic votes.

If there is no way to return ballots from the diplomatic mission to Korea, counting is conducted directly at the mission according to the Public Official Election Act. The Commission will decide on the missions subject to counting by the 11th.

Meanwhile, as of 9 a.m. on the 7th, the number of return vote registrants was 1,610, an increase of 1,252 compared to 358 four years ago.

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