VIP Line in a Poll

In the polls placed in Sookmyung Girls` High School, Gangnam-gu Seoul in the morning on December 19, there was a controversy over a discrimination of voters.

It was because the polls had the exclusive line for residents of Tower Palace known as the highest priced apartment.

At 9 a.m. of the day, there were so many residents of Dogok 3-dong in front of the polling station of Sookmyung Girls` High School. Then, one staff of the national election commission said, “Residents of Tower Palace, please stand in a separate line.” So, these residents were in the line made by the national election commission. Non-Tower Palace residents made a protest to the national election commission and the Dogok police station. Around 10 a.m. of the day, the line was returned to original position.

Lee Wan-Geun, the chairman of Dogok 2-dong national election commission explained, “We had the separate lists of Tower Palace residents and so we intended to progress the voting effectively. We didn’t have any other intention.”

Besides, a playground of Sookmyung Girls` High School was full of 500 luxury cars such as Lexus, BMW and Benz from the morning. The playground was like the exhibition of foreign luxury cars. Being the richest of the richest, Dogok2-dong has various commercial cum residential complexes such as Tower Palace, Daelim Acro-Vill and Woosung Character-Vill. The average price per pyong is 22 million won and the highest priced apartment reaches 2.8 billion won.

In-Jik Cho cij1999@donga.com