Voter registration among Koreans abroad for the upcoming Dec. 19th presidential election is less than expected despite eased regulations and active publicity.
According to the National Election Commission on Thursday, 132,100, or 5.9 percent of all eligible for overseas voting and absentee balloting have registered, just exceeding the registration rate for the April parliamentary elections of 5.57 percent.
The application was made available in more than 110 countries on July 22.
Among those who registered, 81.5 percent, or 107,610, were absentee voters who have domestic residence registration but were voting abroad, such as diplomatic officials, students studying abroad, and travelers, and 18.5 percent, or 24,490, were overseas Koreans who lacked domestic residence registration.
Considering that the April elections only allowed overseas voters cast their ballot for proportional representatives for the National Assembly, the registration turnout for the presidential election has been deemed to be quite low in comparison.
The low turnout rate comes amid efforts by lawmakers to increase the voting rate of overseas Koreans. The National Assembly passed last month new laws that would ease the registration process, such as allowing family members to submit the application on behalf of the overseas voter and registration by email.
“Considering how a flurry of people opted to register closer to the deadline for the April elections, we expect the registration rate to go up in the coming week,” an official at the Commission said.
The registration deadline for overseas voters is Oct. 20.
By Samuel Songhoon Lee ()
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
