(Yonhap)
South Korean citizens under self-quarantine at home are likely to be allowed to cast their ballots in next week’s general elections scheduled Wednesday, according to the disaster control agency.
“Government agencies and related organizations have been discussing measures on how to enable those being quarantined at home to exercise their voting rights at the upcoming April 15 elections,” said Kim Kang-lip, a senior official at the Korea Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters.
The quarantined citizens, however, are not allowed to participate in the ongoing early voting session that closes Saturday, in a bid to minimize the risk of novel coronavirus infections, the official said in a press briefing on Friday.
Setting a time slot for voting or installing separate voting booths are some of the possible measures to guarantee suffrage for quarantined people.
“The government will soon decide the specific details and announce them in a scheduled briefing Sunday,” Kim said.
Around 75,000 people are forecast to remain quarantined on the election day. Seoul has reported 30 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total infections to 10,480 as of Saturday morning.
For the six straight days, the nation has recorded 50 or fewer new infection cases.
By Kim Young-won (wone0102@heraldcorp.com)