By Lee Tae-hoon
Korea Times Correspondent
HAWAII ― Koreans living abroad are becoming increasingly anxious over lawmakers' failure to provide specific plans regarding their ability to vote.
"We have recently seen a surge of lawmakers visiting the United States since the Election Law was revised in February." said Jeff Lee, a director of the Korean American Federation of Los Angeles, from the costal city's Koreatown.
"Yet, none of them have come up with specific plans to simplify the registration and voting process, which takes a couple of days for many to cast a vote at the nearest Korean consulate or embassy and to counter fraudulent votes when the mail voting system is introduced," Lee said.
Both governing and opposition party lawmakers submitted bills last September and March that would introduce a postal voting system to protect the right to vote of those living abroad and to boost their voting turnout rate.
Yet, legislators have put the suffrage issue on the back burner amid political bickering over the recent Cabinet reshuffle and parliamentary inspection of the administration.
Both parties are hesitant about passing the bill because it is difficult to determine which side it would benefit more.
"It is hard to predict which party overseas Koreans will support in the 2012 elections," Lee said. "Koreans have a long history of immigration. But they have never been given a chance to vote to pick a politician in their homeland"
Lee said the percentage of voter turnout among 2.4 million overseas Koreans eligible to vote will most likely remain in the single digits as the majority of them will be reluctant to travel several hours to register and cast a vote.
But he predicted turnout would surpass 20 percent if mail voting is implemented.
"Many of the 350,000 Korean voters living in California and New Mexico would have to spend two whole days to cast a vote as they will have to travel to one of two temporal election offices in Los Angeles," Jeff said. "I bet things would be much worse in other large countries, such as Russia and China."
Critics, however, said it will be difficult to check the validity of the votes as the mailing system lacks the ability to check the identity of voters.
Some suggested the government should seek ways to increase the number of voting locations by dispatching election officials.
They said mail voting violates the principle of direct election and that appropriate measures to counter fraudulent votes should be drawn up.
Currently, postal voting is available only to a handful of people, including the physically handicapped.
Last February, the National Assembly passed a bill permitting Korean nationals abroad to vote in the presidential election and to elect legislators picked under the proportional representation system starting in 2012.
Postal voting is available in several countries, including the United States, Britain and Switzerland.
Some worry that the amended election system could do harm to the integration of Korean communities abroad as overseas Koreans might suffer divisive political conflicts.
leeth@koreatimes.co.kr
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