By John Burton
Americans normally don't pay much attention to foreign elections. But, for several reasons, they should when it comes to Korea's National Assembly elections on Wednesday.
Interest should focus on the way the election will be conducted, one of the first to be held worldwide since the World Health Organization declared the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic in March. Although Korea appears to have gotten its COVID-19 outbreak under control, there are fears that crowded voting places could trigger new infections.
Similar concerns have forced many U.S. states to postpone from spring to summer the primary polls to select presidential and congressional candidates for the country's general elections in November. There are even increasing worries that the November elections will be disrupted by the virus crisis.
The U.S. should study how Korea's National Election Commission is handling this situation. It is requiring voters to wear face masks and will check them for fevers, while providing hand sanitizers and vinyl gloves to prevent infections. Social distancing will be enforced, voting booths will be cleaned often, and the pens to mark ballot papers will be replaced frequently.
These elaborate safeguards are expected to encourage a strong voter turnout. Good practices have also been seen on the campaign trail with candidates wearing clear perspex shields or masks covering their faces.
Compare these measures with what happened last week in Wisconsin, one of the few U.S. states that has pressed ahead with its original scheduled primary election. Fears of the virus caused a shortage of poll workers and resulted in the closure of many polling places, with extremely long lines at those that remained open.
The U.S. continues to suffer from a shortage of hand sanitizers, face masks and gloves. Some poll workers in Wisconsin weren't wearing any personal protective gear. This being America, where the car is king, one solution was to allow drive-through voting where the drivers did not have to leave their vehicles. But the general impression was of a disorganized voting process that could be repeated across the U.S. this year. The only advantage the U.S. enjoys over the Korean voting system is that many states allow the use of mail-in ballots.
More importantly, American political pundits should look at how well President Moon Jae-in and his ruling Democratic Party of Korea will do in the elections and whether the U.S. can draw any lessons from the results.
Korea has been widely praised in the U.S. for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak under the Moon administration. There is a growing demand that the U.S. should adopt similar policies.
A majority of Americans view the Trump administration's response to the crisis as shambolic since it has failed so far to conduct widespread testing of COVID-19 cases to identify those who must be quarantined. It is U.S. governors, many of them Democratic opponents of Trump, who have been lauded for taking effective action to curb the virus and speaking frankly to the public about the challenges that must be met.
So it will be of interest to U.S. Democrats whether President Moon will be rewarded for what has been regarded as his successful handling of the crisis. This could be interpreted as a sign that the Democrats could also do well in the November elections.
The momentum appears to be behind President Moon, with his approval rating recently at a 16-month high of 53.5 percent in the last week of March. He appears to have overcome earlier criticism that he initially reacted late to the crisis.
Both Korea and the U.S. remain deeply polarized politically. Other factors such as growing social inequality and the Moon administration's inter-Korean and foreign policies will play a role in the National Assembly election outcome. But the election will largely be regarded as a referendum on President Moon and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The same could be said for the November elections in the U.S when it comes to President Trump.
Equally important, the National Assembly polls will test whether a country can hold an election in the midst of a global pandemic. If Korea proves able to do so, it will be admired not only for its COVID-19 response but also the effectiveness and stability of its democratic system.
Not only the U.S., but the rest of the world, should take note of what happens in Korea this week. What would normally be dismissed elsewhere as a parochial election could have global significance. It may provide an early indication of voter behavior and the expression of public preferences for future policy directions on such issues as reviving and restructuring the economy in a world that has suddenly been upended.
John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.
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Interest should focus on the way the election will be conducted, one of the first to be held worldwide since the World Health Organization declared the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) a global pandemic in March. Although Korea appears to have gotten its COVID-19 outbreak under control, there are fears that crowded voting places could trigger new infections.
Similar concerns have forced many U.S. states to postpone from spring to summer the primary polls to select presidential and congressional candidates for the country's general elections in November. There are even increasing worries that the November elections will be disrupted by the virus crisis.
The U.S. should study how Korea's National Election Commission is handling this situation. It is requiring voters to wear face masks and will check them for fevers, while providing hand sanitizers and vinyl gloves to prevent infections. Social distancing will be enforced, voting booths will be cleaned often, and the pens to mark ballot papers will be replaced frequently.
These elaborate safeguards are expected to encourage a strong voter turnout. Good practices have also been seen on the campaign trail with candidates wearing clear perspex shields or masks covering their faces.
Compare these measures with what happened last week in Wisconsin, one of the few U.S. states that has pressed ahead with its original scheduled primary election. Fears of the virus caused a shortage of poll workers and resulted in the closure of many polling places, with extremely long lines at those that remained open.
The U.S. continues to suffer from a shortage of hand sanitizers, face masks and gloves. Some poll workers in Wisconsin weren't wearing any personal protective gear. This being America, where the car is king, one solution was to allow drive-through voting where the drivers did not have to leave their vehicles. But the general impression was of a disorganized voting process that could be repeated across the U.S. this year. The only advantage the U.S. enjoys over the Korean voting system is that many states allow the use of mail-in ballots.
More importantly, American political pundits should look at how well President Moon Jae-in and his ruling Democratic Party of Korea will do in the elections and whether the U.S. can draw any lessons from the results.
Korea has been widely praised in the U.S. for its response to the COVID-19 outbreak under the Moon administration. There is a growing demand that the U.S. should adopt similar policies.
A majority of Americans view the Trump administration's response to the crisis as shambolic since it has failed so far to conduct widespread testing of COVID-19 cases to identify those who must be quarantined. It is U.S. governors, many of them Democratic opponents of Trump, who have been lauded for taking effective action to curb the virus and speaking frankly to the public about the challenges that must be met.
So it will be of interest to U.S. Democrats whether President Moon will be rewarded for what has been regarded as his successful handling of the crisis. This could be interpreted as a sign that the Democrats could also do well in the November elections.
The momentum appears to be behind President Moon, with his approval rating recently at a 16-month high of 53.5 percent in the last week of March. He appears to have overcome earlier criticism that he initially reacted late to the crisis.
Both Korea and the U.S. remain deeply polarized politically. Other factors such as growing social inequality and the Moon administration's inter-Korean and foreign policies will play a role in the National Assembly election outcome. But the election will largely be regarded as a referendum on President Moon and his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. The same could be said for the November elections in the U.S when it comes to President Trump.
Equally important, the National Assembly polls will test whether a country can hold an election in the midst of a global pandemic. If Korea proves able to do so, it will be admired not only for its COVID-19 response but also the effectiveness and stability of its democratic system.
Not only the U.S., but the rest of the world, should take note of what happens in Korea this week. What would normally be dismissed elsewhere as a parochial election could have global significance. It may provide an early indication of voter behavior and the expression of public preferences for future policy directions on such issues as reviving and restructuring the economy in a world that has suddenly been upended.
John Burton (johnburtonft@yahoo.com), a former Korea correspondent for the Financial Times, is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist and consultant.
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