Seoul mayor urges review of voting rights for foreign residents ahead of June elections

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon speaks during a press conference at City Hall in Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon called for a review of voting rights for foreign residents in local elections, while defending his troubled Hangang Bus project as a pillar of his mayoral legacy and broader vision for the capital.

Speaking to reporters at a City Hall press conference on Tuesday, Oh signaled a strong intention to seek another term, framing the upcoming vote as a test of Seoul’s global standing and the public’s faith in his leadership.

Under the Public Official Election Act, noncitizens who hold permanent residency and have lived in the country for at least three years may cast ballots for mayors, governors and local councils, though not for president or National Assembly members.

According to data from the National Assembly Budget Office, disclosed last year by Rep. Kim Mi-ae of the conservative People Power Party, the number of noncitizens eligible to vote in local elections exceeded 140,000, with 81 percent of them Chinese nationals.

“Voting rights must go hand in hand with responsibility and contribution,” Oh said. “Anyone with such a right should have contributions — such as paying local taxes — and there also needs to be a principle of reciprocity. If their countries do not allow Korean nationals to vote in their countries, then granting them voting rights here is not balanced.”

Oh voiced support for tightening and clarifying the law, arguing that the system should be recalibrated to better reflect fairness and civic responsibility. His comments come as debate over foreign voting rights resurfaces ahead of the June 3 elections, with some conservatives warning the bloc could be a deciding factor in tight races.

In the 2022 Gyeonggi gubernatorial contest, for example, Kim Dong-yeon of the Democratic Party of Korea narrowly defeated the PPP’s Kim Eun-hye by fewer than 9,000 votes.

When asked about criticism of the city’s Hangang Bus, a waterborne transport project that has been dogged by technical failures, groundings and repeated suspensions since its launch in September 2025, Oh acknowledged “early-stage problems” and apologized for the inconvenience. But he insisted the service must be judged as a long-term investment rather than a short-lived experiment.

“A great river without boats is a dead river,” he said. “Any new project has always had approximately this level of trial and error in the beginning.”

Oh defended the river project, likening it to Seoul’s other large-scale urban transformations, such as the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, commonly referred to as the DDP.

“No citizens were asking for the DDP or the Seoul Dulle-gil trail project when they were first proposed,” he added. “But can you imagine the city without them today?”

Oh then said Hangang Bus service, which is now partially suspended for technical problems, will fully resume operations on March 1, with revised schedules and adjusted routes aimed at improving safety, punctuality and capacity on crowded sections such as Yeouido.

With less than four months until the local elections, speculation over Oh’s political future continues to grow. Though he has not formally declared his candidacy, the four-term mayor hinted strongly at his intention to run again.

“The timing of a formal announcement matters little. What matters is that I am dedicated to making Seoul a global top-five city and achieving balanced development across the city,” Oh said.

He closed the briefing by casting the June election as a referendum on Seoul’s identity.

“Seoul is now being asked to stand as Asia’s leading city,” Oh said. “Continuing to build a status for Seoul that befits that role and to lead from the front — that, I believe, should be the guiding spirit of this local election.”