By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
Religious groups are protesting that voting places are being unequally allocated to protestant churches, and are moving to file a petition with the Constitutional Court next month. They are appealing that the unequal allotment of the facilities is discriminatory and goes against the principle of neutrality that the country should uphold in elections.
Buddhists complained that the installment could give people the wrong idea. ``It may give the impression that the country is in favor of a particular religion,'' said a researcher at an institute with the nation's largest Buddhist Jogye order.
Other religious groups have similar opinions. ``There have been constant complaints from the citizens who were upset about having to go to churches to cast their vote. However, the government does not seem to even listen,'' Korea Institute of Religious Freedom researcher Bae Byung-tae said. ``Installing voting places in these areas could violate rights to pursue happiness and freedom of religion,'' he added.
He said the institute has been collecting stories of voters who refused to vote simply because they did not want to enter religious buildings which they do not like or stand for. Some reported churchgoers trying to preach to them when they cast their votes.
The institution along with Christians, Buddhists and others are drawing up a petition to be presented to the National Human Rights Commission and the Central Election Management Committee.
Some Protestant Churches, on the other hand, said they were providing their church buildings for a national event, and could not be blamed.
``As matter of fact, it is quite stressful to open the building to people who do not like us. But when the government requested that we do so, we did not object because we thought it was another way to serve the country,'' a pastor, who did not identify himself, said.
According to the institute and Jogye Order, among 13,178 voting places for the Dec. 19 presidential election, 1,160 of them were set up at religious places.
Among them, 91 percent were at protestant churches while Catholic and Buddhist places of worship took 8.7 percent and 0.3 percent. Especially in large cities such as Seoul and Busan, 23.1 percent and 13.6 percent of the places were at churches.
The election committee said the allotment was made because the religious facilities satisfied the conditions to be voting venues ― having good transportation, safety and facilities for the physically challenged.
According to the Election Law, voting venues should be installed in schools, regional government or public organization offices, and other places where the voters feel free to vote. Therefore, choosing churches would not, according to some, be a violation of law.
``However, we will reflect on the civic group's requests,'' the committee spokesman Kim Se-hwan said.