KOICA Shares Election Quarantine Experience with Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia Ahead of General Election

Holding a Webinar to Share COVID-19 Election Experiences in Collaboration with the Election Commission
Plans to Enhance Poll Workers' Skills and Provide Polling Station Disinfection Supplies Such as Masks and Vinyl Gloves

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] KOICA is sharing its experience of elections during the COVID-19 pandemic with Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia.

On the 17th, KOICA announced that on the 16th, it held a webinar with the Central Election Commission (CEC) to share Korea's general election experience with staff of the Kyrgyzstan Central Election Commission to help establish a safe and democratic election environment in Kyrgyzstan.

Kyrgyzstan, which had indefinitely postponed local elections in April, announced that despite having about 11,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases as of the 15th and an average of 500 new daily cases, it plans to hold the general election in October as scheduled.

Ahead of the election, the Kyrgyz government has shown great interest in Korea's election management policies, which successfully managed the 21st National Assembly elections amid the COVID-19 spread, and has continuously requested to share Korea's experience.

Accordingly, KOICA and the CEC introduced Korea's election management measures through a webinar under the themes of 'COVID-19 response for voting and counting management' and 'elections where no one is excluded,' highlighting Korea's high voter turnout of 66.2% and zero infection cases.

Specifically, officials from the CEC who were in charge of quarantine during the April elections served as speakers and shared Korea's experience, including △an overview of Korea's election quarantine △voting systems for confirmed COVID-19 patients and those in self-quarantine △principles of voting and counting and quarantine measures at polling stations.

Previously, KOICA invested $6.15 million (approximately 7.4 billion KRW) from 2014 to 2016 to establish an election automation system and conducted election management capacity training for local officials in Kyrgyzstan to strengthen election capabilities.

As a result, during the 2017 presidential election, the counting time was reduced from two days to two hours, and the accuracy of counting and public trust in elections improved. KOICA contributed to Kyrgyzstan becoming the first country in Central Asia to conduct general and presidential elections democratically and transparently using information technology (IT).

Baek Sook-hee, Director of KOICA's Africa, Middle East & Latin America Headquarters, said, "Even in special situations like COVID-19, we held a webinar to strengthen the capacity of the local election commission so that everyone can safely participate in elections," adding, "KOICA will continue to strive to contribute to democracy and peacebuilding in developing countries."

Meanwhile, starting with this webinar, KOICA plans to carry out post-support projects worth a total of $300,000 (approximately 360 million KRW) until the Kyrgyzstan October general election ends, including strengthening the capacity of local election officials and providing polling station quarantine supplies such as masks, vinyl gloves, and thermometers.

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