Eligible foreign voters triple since 2014, hitting record high for June 3 elections

Staff of the National Election Commission inspect ballot papers before the June 3 local elections at the agency's office in Guro District, Seoul, Saturday. Yonhap

Graphic by Bae So-young

The number of eligible foreign voters for the June 3 local elections has tripled since 2014, according to government election agency data, with Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, topping all cities and districts nationwide.

National Election Commission data compiled by The Korea Times shows 151,532 foreign residents are registered to vote in the upcoming local elections, up from 48,428 in 2014. In Korea, foreign nationals aged 18 or older are granted the right to vote in local elections — for mayors, governors, district heads, local councilors and education superintendents — three years after obtaining an F-5 permanent residency visa.

Ansan, the most ethnically diverse city in the country, topped the list with 10,174 eligible foreign voters. Two other Gyeonggi Province cities — Bucheon with 8,581 and Suwon with 7,895 — followed. All three host major industrial complexes and offer convenient commutes to Seoul plus affordable housing, making them attractive to foreign workers and immigrants.

Public art symbolizing multiculturalism stands in the Multicultural Food Street of Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, July 26, 2023. Ansan, the most ethnically diverse city in Korea, topped the list of cities with the highest number of eligible foreign voters with 10,174. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul

Within Seoul, Guro District holds the highest number of eligible foreign voters at 6,736, driven largely by a high population of Chinese nationals and ethnic Koreans from China. The area is part of a sprawling Chinatown district that extends into neighboring Yeongdeungpo, which ranked second in the capital with 6,349 registered foreign voters. Both districts are home to sizable communities from Northeast China and rank fifth and sixth nationwide in total foreign resident population, respectively.

Incheon's Bupyeong District stands as the only district from the city in the top 10, with 5,388 eligible foreign voters, ranking seventh nationwide. The area's rising foreign population is widely seen as filling in the growing vacancies, as Korean citizens have steadily emptied out of the older district and moved to newer parts of town such as Songdo and Cheongna international cities.

While the number of eligible foreign voters is not strictly correlated with the total foreign population, which stood at 2.16 million as of March, the patterns remain highly consistent.

Members of an ethnic Chinese family in Korea cast their votes for the local elections at Jeemyung Church in Seoul in this file photo from May 31, 2006. Yonhap

How foreign voting rights began

Korea became the first country in Asia to grant voting rights to foreign residents through a landmark 2005 revision of the election law under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. The policy was initially introduced in hopes of securing reciprocal voting rights for overseas Koreans through bilateral treaties. It took effect during the 2006 local elections, when 6,726 foreign nationals were eligible to vote for local government heads.

Foreign nationals still make up a small portion of Korea’s 44.6 million voters. However, their numbers are rising steadily alongside a growing foreign community drawn to the country’s economic growth and expanded cultural impact.

Despite having voting rights, foreign voter turnout remains chronically low, prompting many experts to call for either a revision of the election rules or for active voter awareness campaigns to increase the turnout.

During the latest local elections in June 2022, which was held during the COVID-19 pandemic, turnout dropped to 13.3 percent. This follows the turnout of 13.5 percent during local elections in 2018 and 17.6 percent during local elections in 2014.