By Park Si-soo
Staff reporter
The voter turnout for local elections tends to hover around 50 percent. This time it was not much different.
For some, the weather was too good, and for others, work was waiting for them. It may be a bit embarrassing to openly say "I didn't vote," though some believe not to vote is also a way of expressing one's opinion.
The Korea Times listened to a number of "excuses" to skip balloting.
Park Sung-kwang, a 33-year-old worker at an Internet start-up in Seoul, was busy exercising and meeting his girlfriend.
"I don't want to be involved in a game of their (the politicians) own," he said. "No matter who wins in the elections, nothing will change. Their campaign pledges were only made to win votes, and not meant to be put into practice."
The last vote he cast was in the 2007 presidential election when President Lee Myung-bak took the nation's helm.
Park said election day is just a holiday for many of his colleagues. "Many workers at my company plan to hit the road Tuesday night, skipping voting the next day," he said.
Lee Jung-in has a strong interest in politics and believes voting is the only way to express one's opinion and improve the political landscape here. However, the 31-year-old career woman couldn't vote because she had to work from early in the morning. Working at a major conglomerate in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, she said, "Due to the heavy workload, I had to work from early morning till late."
Kim Sook-ja was hamstrung by work too. "It takes more than one hour to get to work, a 24-hour restaurant in central Seoul, from my home on the outskirts of the city," Kim said. "I'm fully aware of the significance of the elections and how precious my voting right is. But the situation is out of my control."
The middle-aged woman added she had no knowledge about candidates running for her electoral district because of a lack of time to check them at home.
Lee Seung-chul, 28, a street vender with a cart selling climbing gear had to take care of his business from early morning at a market near a mountain in northern Seoul. "My priority is making money," he said. "If my full-time employment at a major firm would be guaranteed by participating in the elections, I would have cast a ballot. But, voting is nothing to do with my employment and income."
Park Kwang-sig, a senior student majoring in forestry at Dongkuk University in Seoul, had no time to vote because of a pre-arranged schedule for academic research that will produce the experimental basis for his graduation paper.
"After research starting this morning is my part-time job at a media company that continues until late at night," Park said.