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A voter at a polling station in Seoul puts on disposable gloves ahead of early voting on Apr. 10. (Kim Bong-gyu, staff photographer)

With tens of thousands of South Koreans confined to their homes for self-quarantine, only those who don’t exhibit any symptoms of the coronavirus will be allowed to vote in the parliamentary elections, which will be held on Apr. 15. They will be forbidden from using public transit when traveling to the polling site; walking or driving are permitted, but they’ll have to be accompanied by their government caseworker.

“Among individuals who have received instructions from their community health center between Apr. 1 and 14 to undergo self-quarantine, only those who have no symptoms of COVID-19 are allowed to vote,” said Minister of Health and Welfare Park Neung-hoo, who also serves as deputy director of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters and Minister of Health, during the daily press briefing on Apr. 12. Park was announcing the guidelines for voting by self-quarantined individuals that had been decided by the disaster safety headquarters on Sunday.

Park explained that limiting the franchise to those without symptoms conformed to “the National Election Commission’s principle of minimizing exposure to infection.”

Those under self-quarantine will have to walk or drive to the polling site, while wearing a mask, and aren’t allowed to use public transit. “Voters will be accompanied by their personal caseworker or monitored in an equivalent manner while they are in transit, taking into account the situation in their region,” Park said.

After arriving at the polling site, the self-quarantined individuals will wait their turn in a separate location, to minimize contact with others, and will be allowed to vote after other voters have finished. Self-quarantined individuals are allowed to leave their house from 5:20 to 7 pm for the purpose of voting.

Furthermore, the disaster safety headquarters will be assigning staff in medical masks and gloves to polling sites where self-quarantined individuals are planning to vote to make sure the proper procedures are followed.

By Kwon Ji-dam, staff reporter

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