Today is Day of Selection

The 17th general election for the National Parliament, which aims at electing a total of 299 assemblymen including 243 local and 56 proportional electorates, will be held at 13,167 polls scattered all over the country from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on April 15.

In accordance with the leading Open Uri Party’s guarantee of the majority in the parliament, the Grand National Party’s sufficient occupation of the parliament seats to prevent the constitutional amendment, and the Millennium Democratic Party’s success or failure in organizing a negotiation body, the upcoming election may stir a political upheaval.

As the electronic ballot counting system has been introduced for the first time in the general parliamentary election, the outline of the election result will be disclosed at around 9 p.m. on this day, and the number of obtained votes classified by parties, which is necessary for considering the success or defeat of the proportional assemblymen, will be unveiled clearly until 12 p.m. at least.

According to the practice of strict election law, the illegal receipt and the offer of bribe and entertainment disclosed by the National Election Commission (NEC) has decreased to one-fifth, 45 cases, of that of the 16th general election, 212 cases. However, the accumulated cases of corruption, which have been totaled since the candidates’ recommendation period, has reached twice the larger figure, 5,777 cases, compared to that of the 16th election, 3,017 cases. As the candidates, who are strongly suspected to be invalidated if they were to be elected, are totaled at 60, by-elections will be held in succession.

On the other hand, “The passion to criticize or observe the representatives of the country is much less important than the devotion and endeavor to elect the proper people to represent the public. In order to sublimate the election to heal the damaged and rotten political world due to the corruptions and diverse conflicts, we should participate in the election without any exceptions,” remarked Yoo Ji-dam, the chief of NEC, on his address to the public on April 14.

NEC, which expects that continuous exercise of the illegal election campaigns, the aspersions against the other candidates, and black propaganda will be unyielding until the day of the election, has decided to strengthen the surveillance in order to persistently pursue the law offenders and strictly regulate them.

Sung-Won Park swpark@donga.com