By Lee Tae-hoon
Voter registration for Korean expatriates stood at a disappointing 3.6 percent as of Friday with about only one week left before the deadline, according to officials of the National Election Commission (NEC).
The three-month registration period for 2.23 million eligible citizens living abroad will end on Feb. 11.
The officials noted that only 80,287 people had submitted their voting registration application for the April 11 general election.
The low participation rate can largely be attributed to overseas Koreans’ lack of interest in politics here, but also inconvenient voter registration methods.
Those wishing to vote must go to a nearby Korean embassy or consulate office in person to register and visit it one more time later to cast a ballot, often by travelling for hours.
Voter registration was highest in the Middle East at 20.24 percent, followed by Africa with 19.25 percent, Europe with 10.01 percent, Asia with 4.06 percent and the United States with 2.19 percent.
By country, 14,879 ethnic Koreans living in America were registered, trailed by China with 14,295 and Japan with 12,976.
Overseas voters are also not allowed to cast ballots for specific candidates in the election as they do not have a constituency. They can only participate in the selection of proportional representation candidates.
The NEC expects about 100,000 Korean expatriates, or 5 percent of the total eligible citizens living abroad to register by the deadline.
Overseas voting for the general election will take place from March 28 to April 2 at 158 Korean overseas missions designated by the election watchdog.
Some overseas voters have to travel several hours to exercise their right to vote as the NEC recognizes only the diplomatic missions in 113 countries as polling stations.
Those living in 65 countries where Korea does not have consular offices must cross borders twice, once to register and then again to cast a ballot.
Lawmakers of both ruling and opposition parties have submitted several bills that seek to introduce a postal voting system to boost the turnout of overseas voters, but none of them have succeeded in passing their proposed legislation.
No major change is expected in minimizing the inconvenience as it requires at least two years for the NEC to introduce any major change such as a postal voting system.