Student body hit for voting fraud
Two students at Busan University of Foreign Studies are being investigated for changing one of the ballot boxes before vote counting to help their preferred candidates win election as student council leaders. The two photos show there is a different ballot box before and after the votes were counted. / Yonhap
By Na Jeong-ju
The Busan University of Foreign Studies (BUFS) is considering expelling the president and vice-president of the Students’ Council, who allegedly engaged in voting fraud to help their favorite candidates get elected as the next council leaders.
According to the university, the vote took place on Nov. 21. After the election, the two students changed one of the ballot boxes with one that was full of votes for their favorite candidates while moving them to the vote count center. Their favorite candidates could have easily beaten their competitors, the school said.
“We declared the election results invalid after discovering the fraud case,” a school spokesman said, asking not to be named. “The school set up a panel to discuss disciplinary measures against the students. They could be expelled from the school.”
The school launched an investigation based on a report from a student, who claimed one of the ballot boxes at the vote count center was different from other boxes. Defeated candidates also raised allegations of fraud, saying they garnered much less votes than they estimated.
The election fraud at the BUFS cast doubts on the operation of student councils at universities.
In Seoul National University (SNU), a weeklong election was held from Nov. 20 to 26 to choose the next leaders of its student council. However, only 28 percent of eligible voters cast ballots ― the lowest voting rate in the election for council leaders in the school’s history.
The SNU plans to hold a re-election next year under the school’s regulations, which states that election results are invalid if the voting rate is lower than 50 percent. The school will hold a re-election for the council leaders for the 10th consecutive year due to the low voting rate.
“The biggest problem here is that students are not interested in choosing their leaders. They don’t mind who will lead the student council,” said Park Min-hun, an SNU student.
“One of the reasons for their low interest in the election is that they only focus on exams to get good scores. In addition, many students should work after school to earn money to pay tuition.”