Release Date: Share, For Immediate Distribution
The Professors’ Solidarity for Freedom & Justice (PFJ) published “Problems and Reform Measures of the Republic of Korea’s Public Official Election System” on May 20, 2021, and a press conference will be held in front of the main gate of the National Assembly at 2 p.m. on May 20, 2021, calling for “the fundamental reform of the public election system.”
- PFJ’s “Problems and Reform Measures of the Republic of Korea’s Public Official Election System” contains extensive and fundamental details on the current public election system and reform measures, including on how to reform the early voting system and the electronic voting system, how to reform election management and procedures, how to introduce a post-verification system, and how to improve new legislation and the legislative system. PFJ will send this publication to each parliamentary office and national organizations responsible for electoral reform and election management, including the National Election Commission, to urge reform of the public election system. The following are the main contents of the publication:
- Since the introduction of the early voting system and the electronic ballot counting system, there have been widespread, substantive, and continuous allegations of election fraud being raised in South Korea. In particular, citizens in nearly half of all of the electoral precincts during the April 15, 2020 general election have filed legal challenges, but trials and verdicts have been delayed indefinitely for more than a year beyond the 180-day deadline for handling election lawsuits. This situation means that the legitimacy and the integrity of electoral democracy in the Republic of Korea and the trust of the people in their sovereignty is broken. Allegations of election irregularities are also a problem, but the more serious issue is that political forces rely on public opinion without transparently and actively resolving these suspicions. The legitimacy of the National Election Commission has already disappeared.
This situation could lead to an overall national crisis in which the fundamental legitimacy of liberal democracy and the basic nature of the sovereign rights of the people are undermined, and not simply a dispute as to how the electoral system is operated and managed. The current allegations of fraud in Korean society mean that fundamental reforms are needed, including necessary measures which involve more crucial issues and which go beyond the operational issues of the Public Official Election Act and how the National Election Commission is managed.
Statistics from the early voting results showed an unacceptable degree of artificial manipulation, and suspicions related to the electronic voting system are reasonably supported by various evidence, so a major systemic reform is urgently needed. There are also risks of fundamentally poor management, such as opacity, coercion, and the existence of institutional blind spots during the voting process. There is also a lack of post-verification mechanisms for the process and outcome of elections, indicating an institutional backwardness that relies entirely on the pre-modern methods of litigation by stakeholders. Fundamental reform of the overall electoral management system is a necessity of the times, with preventive measures to cope with increasingly diversified and clandestine election irregularities as IT technology develops.
The Professors’ Solidarity for Freedom & Justice published “Problems and Reform Measures of the Republic of Korea’s Public Official Election System” with the people’s wishes and desires in mind. Based on the awareness of the problem and the direction of reform detailed in this publication, we solemnly urge all related agencies, including the National Assembly, the government, the NEC, and the courts, to begin the work of reform as soon as possible and make efforts to restore the essence of liberal democracy. The main points of the reform measures proposed by the PFJ are as follows:
(How to reform the early voting system and the electronic voting system)
1. Stipulate the prohibition of using QR codes on early voting ballot papers.
2. Switch to a manual counting system to rule out electronic manipulation.
3. Disclose any programs related to the source code of the ballot sorting machine.
4. Aim for evidence conservation for the digital data and equipment.
5. Conduct forensic verification of all National Election Commission servers shortly after the election.
6. Explicitly prohibit the practice of replacing public and early voting officer seals with printed seals.
7. Early voting ballot printers should be given a serial number unique to the machine to prevent fraudulent production of the early voting ballot papers.
8. Disclose the identities of citizens who participate in early voting by each polling station, disclose the lists of consolidated voters, and disclose all ballot counting table lists.
9. Remove communication functions such as external connection ports, wireless LANs, and wireless chips from the counting machines, sorters, and connected laptops.
(How to reform electoral management and procedures)
10. Correct management weak spots in both early voting and election day voting ballot boxes.
11. Switch to a simple sorting method or manual counting method to prevent sorting malfunctions and possibilities of manipulation.
12. Arrange for observers to check the ballots from the sorter.
13. Increase transparency when outside items are brought into the ballot counting room.
14. Let the observers check and sign the entries of the ballot counting table lists.
15. Check the identities and residences of voters and take measures to manage transparently the moving or storing ballot boxes.
16. Strictly penalize the NEC staff for their high-handed attitude and illegal activities, and transparently appoint a ballot counting assistant.
17. Need to position observers and install CCTVs in early voting stations and fundamentally strengthen security of the early voting ballot boxes.
18. Implement measures to strengthen expertise among election commissioners and observers.
(Introduce post-verification methods)
19. Organize the post-verification system as an integral part of the public official election system. To this end, introduce a “Procedure and Management System Verification” system, which is a verification of the appropriateness of the election management and monitoring procedures, and a “Verification of Election Results” system, which is a verification of the accuracy of the ballot counting results.
20. The post-verification agency shall be organized by a specialized agency independent of the National Election Commission and shall exercise full power in the field of election verification.
21. Establish a “public election verification committee” to verify the election procedures and management systems and verify the results.
(New legislative and institutional improvements)
22. Ensure that the deadline for the handling of election challenges is met and introduce a compulsory performance penalty system.
23. To strengthen the political neutrality of the National Election Commission, introduce the requirement to ban party membership for a certain period.
24. In the case of the pre-application registration system for early voting, early voting for Outside Jurisdiction, include a pledge for residential voting, and reintroduce the signing of names by election officers and ballot counting officers.
25. The Public Official Election Act shall be reorganized democratically and transparently by operating a committee for the readjustment of the Public Official Election Act consisting of civilian experts, the NEC, and National Assembly officials, and penalize violations of public election laws.
May 18, 2021
On behalf of the Professors’ Solidarity for Freedom & Justice
