570,000 Votes That Became 'Nonexistent'... Public Proposal That Brought Disappointment

Online Voting Login and Real-Name Verification Not Performed
Technical and Management Failures Lead to Invalidations

Yongsan Presidential Office./Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Juhee] The Presidential Office has nullified the selection of the top three proposals from the newly established 'National Proposals' system, which replaced the 'National Petitions' system under the Moon Jae-in administration. This decision was made due to suspected abuse (multiple submissions) detected in the online voting conducted on the National Proposals website, raising doubts about the vote's validity. Although the Presidential Office initially planned to actively incorporate the selected National Proposals into state governance, the process has encountered setbacks from the start. Some critics argue that instead of serving as a social public forum, the initiative has only caused disappointment.

A Presidential Office official stated at a briefing held on the 1st at the Yongsan Presidential Office in Seoul, "Although many citizens responded enthusiastically, due to some abuse incidents during the voting, we have decided not to select the originally planned three outstanding proposals." The Presidential Office had launched the National Proposals section on June 23, receiving over 13,000 proposals, complaints, and petitions. From these, 10 were shortlisted, and an online vote was planned to finalize the top three outstanding proposals.

Since the plan was to actively reflect the selected three proposals in state governance, public enthusiasm for voting was high. The voting took place over ten days from the 21st to the 31st of last month. The proposal that received the most support, "Abolishing mandatory closures of large supermarkets," garnered a total of 577,415 'likes.' However, due to technical issues, the final selection was ultimately nullified.

Some view this outcome as predictable. Concerns about system inadequacies had been raised even before the voting began. The National Proposals online voting allowed participation without login or identity verification, enabling multiple votes from different devices.

Moreover, the voting system only featured a 'like' button without options to express opposition or provide comments, limiting the ability to accurately gauge public sentiment. The 10 National Proposals listed in the voting window consisted solely of one-line titles without explanations of the policies, leading to criticism that the vote was too superficial to be considered a meaningful selection of proposals to be reflected in governance.

Due to these issues, civil society groups had previously called for the suspension of the public vote. On the 28th of last month, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, and the Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business Owners and Self-Employed held a press conference in front of the Presidential Office, opposing the abolition of mandatory closures of large supermarkets. They stated, "The National Proposals Top 10 is a mere formality pushed by the government under the pretense of public choice," and added, "Instead of hiding behind the people and pushing policies through loopholes, the government should openly declare its policy intentions and undergo social discussion and consensus processes."

In response, the Presidential Office announced plans to consider introducing an identity verification system to improve the process. A Presidential Office official said, "Since National Proposals are not immediately decided as policies, and being ranked first does not mean immediate policy adoption, we will carefully consider whether to introduce an identity verification system to prevent multiple voting and improve the system."

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