990,000 voters cast ballot after 5 p.m. on Saturday

One of the ongoing controversies around the early voting carried out on Saturday afternoon for the suffrage of COVID-19 patients and those in self quarantine is that the election authorities have not kept track of exactly how many COVID-19 patients and those in self-quarantine vs. normal voters joined early voting. There is a concern that a political chaos will increase due to the poor management of early voting if the two most voted candidates turn out to have only a small gap in their ballot counts after all votes are counted on the election day.

As per the election statistics system run by the National Election Commission on Sunday, a total of 990,630 voters, 2.2 percent of the total number of voters (44.1 million and 97,692) cast a ballot from 5 p.m. until the closing time on Saturday when early voting started for COVID-19 patients.

However, the total number of 990,000 or so includes not only normal voters but also confirmed cases and those in self quarantine who voted after 5 p.m. The NEC seems to find it impossible to separate the two groups at the moment because not any particular list of confirmed cases and those in self quarantine but the “united registry system” with all the electorate college reflected was used to verify their identity.

Experts expect to figure out how many COVID-19 patients and those in self quarantine join to vote as they are required to submit a written confirmation of identity verification before voting. “We may count their votes separately. However, it is not yet determined whether they will be separately totaled,” said the NEC.

There is a concern across the political circles that such a poorly managed voting practice may spark controversy if the most voted candidate wins by a slight difference of one to two percent points. However, the ruling Minjoo Party of Korea and the main opposition People Power Party still show little response to the possibility of election fraud recently mentioned. As both sides may need to save themselves from any irony that they will find themselves negating an election result that brings victory to them, they are seemingly afraid to raise suspicion about a rigged election while currently expressing confidence in their wining.


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