A bigger problem than extending voting hours

The main opposition Democratic United Party on Thursday urged Park Geun-hye, the presidential candidate of the ruling Saenuri Party, to express her position on the proposed simultaneous parliamentary deliberation of bills to extend voting hours and a rule requiring a political party to return election campaign subsidies if its candidate drops out of a presidential race. After the opposition party`s presidential runner Moon Jae-in accepted a proposal by Lee Jung-hyun, chief public affairs officer of Saenuri`s election committee, to deliberate the two bills simultaneously, the ruling party took a step back by saying the proposal was Lee’s “personal opinion.” Moon criticized Saenuri for being insincere about the matter.

For the purpose of increasing voter turnout, the extension of voting hours, which are from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., by two to three hours seems desirable. In the 2004 gubernatorial and mayoral by-elections, which voting hours were extended two hours, however, voter turnout was lower than the average of previous elections. According to a survey by the National Election Commission, 58.1 percent of temporary workers wanted the right to vote anywhere regardless of home address, while just 12.4 percent preferred to extend voting hours. Bringing up the proposal to extend voting hours ahead of the December presidential election gives the impression that the idea is politically motivated.

A bigger problem for voters, however, is the prolonged tug-of-war between the two leading opposition presidential candidates over fielding a single runner. Lee Nak-yeon, co-chairman of the main opposition party`s election committee, said, “(Independent candidate) Ahn Cheol-soo said it would be okay if the opposition unifies its candidate after the candidate registration period (Nov. 25-26), but this will cause too much inconvenience to the people.” The delay in candidate unification makes people confused over casting their vote, going far beyond a matter of inconvenience. The electorate’s choice could be different if there are just two or three main candidates. Failure to finalize the candidacy until a few days before the country`s most important election is a challenge to suffrage. Voters should get enough time to check the visions, policy proposals, quality and ethical standards of candidates before making their choices.

Due to uncertainty over the opposition`s bid to unify its candidate, public attention is drawn to when the two opposition contenders will unify their candidacies, who will be the finalist, and if the candidate unification is possible at all. Debates among presidential candidates have yet to be held in part because of the delay in candidate unification. Ironically, Moon and Ahn are two political debutants who have pledged to end public distrust in politics, but have simply fueled the people`s political fatigue. If the delay discourages voting, it would be useless to discuss the extension of voting hours.