Voting by permanent resident aliens, particularly Chinese nationals, in regional elections in South Korea was a controversial issue during this year’s mayoral by-elections.
South Korean election law allows foreigners who held permanent resident status for over three years to participate in regional elections as they can be considered as residents of the region. However, they are not allowed to vote in presidential or National Assembly elections, which are seen as representing the whole country.
Kwon Young-se, a lawmaker from the main opposition People Power Party (PPP), acquired statistics from the Ministry of Justice last week on the number of foreign nationals registered as permanent resident aliens. There were 161,970 as of the end of February. Among these, 143,653 held permanent resident status for over three years.
Chinese nationals made up a majority at 114,003 people, or 79.4 percent of the total. This was followed by people from Taiwan (11,978), Japan (7,471), and the United States (1,069). These figures also include people who do not have voting rights since they are minors or held in state custody.
According to the National Election Commission, 42,246 foreigners were eligible to vote this year. Among them, 38,126 resided in Seoul. The NEC did not release specific data categorizing them by country.
The 38,126 voters are only 0.45 percent of total voters eligible to vote in the Seoul mayoral election. However, a small amount can still have influence during a close election. During the 2010 Seoul mayoral election, conservative Oh Se-hoon beat liberal Han Myung-sook by just 26,412 votes.
There was fierce debate online during the election. Some asked “Why are foreigners participating in a South Korean election?” while some said, “Many foreign voters share the same heritage as us and should be given the right to vote since they meet requirements.”
This controversy is connected to growing anti-Chinese sentiment in South Korea. One of the key reasons is that the ruling Democratic Party publicly asked Chinese nationals with South Korean permanent resident status to vote when polls showed that they were losing. Local media speculated that the DP was going “all-in” with the Chinese Korean community along with some other demographic groups to make a comeback. Park Young-sun, the DP’s Seoul mayoral candidate, invited representatives from Chinese-Korean associations to speak at her final rallies as well. Many conservatives linked this to the Moon Jae-in administration’s pro-China stance, and said that the DP is asking China for help to win the election.
Oh Se-hoon, who eventually won the 2021 mayoral election, also caused controversy over the voting issue. Oh said one of the reasons he lost in a 2020 National Assembly election was “tens of thousands of naturalized joseonjok [Chinese-Korean], more than 90 percent of whom are pro-DP.” The Chinese-Korean community showed discomfort toward Oh’s remarks, arguing that they were “nationalistic.”
Around 220,000 people signed a Blue House petition launched in March 2020 called “Disenfranchise foreign aliens who are Chinese nationals.” The Blue House responded to the petition and said the purpose of the existing law is to realize “universal democracy”. It said that there are foreign countries such as New Zealand and Denmark that allow resident aliens to vote and that the total number of foreign voters in South Korea amounts to only 0.25 percent of the total voters. The Blue House added that this is an issue that is decided by the National Assembly.
In China, Japan, and the United States, foreign nationals cannot vote in any type of election.
The foreign nationals’ voting rights issue was raised in the early 2000s under the leftist Kim Dae-jung administration. In 2001, the National Assembly passed a bill allowing foreigners who have lived long enough in South Korea to participate in regional elections. However, the law was repealed just a year later based on Article 1 of the constitution, which states that, “The sovereignty of the Republic of Korea shall reside in the people, and all state authority shall emanate from the people.”
The issue was raised again in 2005 to recognize the rights of Korean-Japanese. The current law went into effect starting with the 2006 regional election.
