Battle for overseas Korean voters begins

Posted on : 2009-01-31 14:37 KST Modified on : 2019-10-19 20:29 KST
But election commission predicts it will be difficult to judge which party benefits most
 where the Overseas Koreans Foundation’s 11th Future Leaders’ Conference was held in July 2008. A total of 105 ethnic Koreans from 29 countries participated in the event.
where the Overseas Koreans Foundation’s 11th Future Leaders’ Conference was held in July 2008. A total of 105 ethnic Koreans from 29 countries participated in the event.

The quiet rivalry between ruling and opposition parties to capture the hearts of overseas Korean voters has begun.

In its plenary session next Monday, the National Assembly is set to pass an amendment to the election law giving voting rights to 2.4 million overseas Korean citizens. These citizens will be able to vote beginning with 2012’s National Assembly (proportional representation) and presidential elections.

The National Election Commission is predicting that around 1.34 million of the 2.4 million overseas Korean citizens will be casting their votes. In an opinion survey carried out in June 2007 with 1,000 overseas citizens in seven countries, 60 percent of respondents said they actively intended to vote. The NEC has stated that these are “simply predictions, which we cannot be confident about.”

Many in the political world are predicting that the benefits of this will go to the conservative Grand National Party in the case of long-term overseas citizens and to opposition parties such as the Democratic Party in the cases of younger short-term overseas citizens such as students and employees of trading companies and branch offices. But no one has been able to present precise calculations of the advantages or disadvantages to each party or of voting tendencies. “It’s being implemented for the first time, so we just have theories going around, and there is a total absence of any data that would allow us to judge if it benefits or hurts any specific party,” said an NEC official.

The different parties are working hard to develop strategies for claiming this “new land.” The GNP, which lost the 15th and 16th presidential elections by margins of 390,000 and 570,000 votes respectively, was the first to roll up its shirt sleeves. The party’s determination is that it benefits their election, since overseas Korean voters have strong conservative tendencies. “There are many conservatives in the United States, which accounts for over half of the overseas citizens, so we view it as fairly beneficial,” said GNP lawmaker Lee Bum-rae, a member of the National Assembly’s special committee on political reform.

They have also started overseas organization activities. In Los Angeles on Sunday, the GNP launched the “U.S.-GNP Forum,” an association of Koreans living in the United States. In mid-February, the subcommittee for overseas Koreans in the party’s central committee is expected to launch its Canada headquarters, with Canada’s Overseas Korean Traders Association chair Kim Gwan-su as its head.

The Democratic Party, a step behind the GNP, set as its party platform the establishment of an “Overseas Citizens’ Office,” and it plans to pursue legislation for this in February. Their intent is to entice overseas voters through the roundabout strategy of providing them with support and assisting in the improvement of their legal standing in their country of residence. They are also establishing plans to run three temporary special committees within the party, seeking out policies and engaging in promotion centering mainly on the United States and Japan.

“There’s still time, so we aren’t formulating any specific measures immediately,” said a core executive in the Democratic Party, adding that it was a “concern” that the number of voters was greater than initially expected.

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