After the Korean presidential election
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By Jay Kim
In this most recent Korean presidential election, what surprised me above all was the voter turnout ― 75.8 percent is not even imaginable for any election in the U.S. By comparison, some 57.5 percent of eligible U.S. voters cast ballots in November. There have not been many polls with voting rates over 60 percent there. Several billion dollars were spent to encourage voting, polling stations were established in each town, and unrestricted absentee voting and various other efforts were made to encourage people to vote. And yet, despite all those efforts, the voter turnout was only 57.5 percent.
I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Korean people’s passion for political participation was so high. Now no one can dare say that the Korean people do not care about political participation. Another surprise is that many female votes went to President-elect Park Geun-hye. I had heard that women in Korea were reluctant to opt for a woman as president. But it turned out not to be true. Just as women in the U.S. supported Hillary Clinton in 2008, women in Korea voted for Park. Women in both countries showed similar sentiments. The problem of regionalism has also improved significantly.
It is also pleasant to note that 89.9 percent of people in their 50s voted in this election. A country certainly succeeds if its people in their 50s unite. Several political experts were wrong in their prediction that conservatives would lose the election if the voter turnout was over 70 percent. Their opinions that Park must win Seoul in order to win the election and that people in their 20s overwhelmingly oppose her were proven wrong. Considering all this, we know that the people of Korea have a high interest in politics and that their judgment has improved. In this election, Koreans were like people from a developed nation, not just in name but in reality.
However, I still believe some things need to change before the next election. First, it is hard to understand why 2.7 billion won of tax money was subsidized to a presidential candidate who failed to receive even 1 percent of support from the people. This candidate made a public statement that she ran just to make Park lose, and it appears that the government tried to fund that attempt. In the U.S., the government would demand the candidate return the money for the reason that its use conflicted with the original purpose of public financing. In the U.S., it is nearly impossible for presidential candidates to receive public funding from the government. Hence, if they do not get support from the people, they cannot raise money to continue their campaigns, which naturally leads to the end of their campaigns. For this reason, even though 15 candidates ran for the presidency in the last election, the field was narrowed to a contest between the Republican Party and the Democratic Party.
Second, I would like to know why a candidate with 1 percent of support in the polls should be allowed to participate in presidential debates. In the U.S., candidates are invited to participate in presidential debates only if they have at least 15 percent support rates on average in surveys carried out by the five national public opinion polling organizations. In Korea, a candidate is allowed to participate in presidential debates if the candidate’s party has at least five members in the National Assembly. Since a president is elected not by the members of the National Assembly but by the people, what is important is the level of support. What does it have to do with the number of members that the candidate’s party has in the National Assembly? Does this mean that an independent candidate cannot participate in the debates, no matter how high the level of support may be, unless the candidate’s party did not have five members of the National Assembly? This requirement discriminates against independent candidates.
Third, people cannot know the result of the third presidential debate in Korea held four days before the election, because the law prohibits the announcement of poll results from six days before election day until the end of voting. In the U.S., even on the day of the election, polls are performed and their results are announced. There is no valid reason to prohibit the announcement of poll results for seven days in Korea, especially when this does not allow people to know the result of the third debate. Thus, I think, it is appropriate to create a non-partisan citizens organization for presidential debates like the Commission on Presidential Debates in the U.S. and let the people, instead of a government organization, take care of the debates.
In this election, Korea elected a female president before Japan, before China, and before the U.S. Korea surprised the world and showed how fast its democracy is moving ahead. I am overwhelmed with the thought that a new year, full of hope, is coming to our homeland. I thank God for always protecting our homeland, Korea, and I hope for boundless blessings and progress for your families and businesses.
Jay Kim is a former U.S. congressman. He serves as chairman of the Kim Chang Joon US-Korea Foundation. For more information, visit Kim’s website at www.jayckim.com.