총 36페이지

16 EyeofTheArgus
Extending Voting Hours,
for Whom?
ByParkHyun-chul
EditorialConsultant
I
nSouthKorea,thelowvoterturnouthasbecomethemainproblemmosthighlyindustrializedcountries
face. The voting rate for the past five presidential elections dropped from 89.2 percent in 1987 when
direct voting was revived, to 63 percent in 2007. Also the voter rate in general elections has dropped,
with the voter rate only 46.1percent in 2008. To solve the problem of declining voter turnout, the main
opposition Democratic United Party (DUP) has pushed to change the election law extending voting hours
from6p.mto9p.m.,whiletherulingSaenuriPartyremainslukewarmabouttheidea.
Whethertoextendvotinghoursisreallyaquestionthatshouldbeapproachedfromtheviewpointofhow
toprovidepeoplewithagreateropportunitytovote,ratherthanfrompoliticalcalculations.Politicalpundits,
meanwhile, said, “the DUP, which generally enjoys stronger support among young people, believes that
extending the voting hours will allow the party to win more votes.” On the other hand, Saenuri’s hopeful
Park Geun-hye’s election camp thinks such a move would be disadvantageous to the 60-year-old five term
lawmaker’schancesofwinningtheelection.Whilethenationalassemblyhasheateddebatesaboutextending
thevotinghours,willthelongervotinghourshelpincreasethevotingturnout,especiallyamongtheirregular
employeesandcollegestudents?
AresearchcarriedoutbyTheKoreanPoliticalScienceAssociation,thenationwideacademicorganization
of scholars who are interested in political science, international relations, and other related disciplines,
founded 1953 in Busan, on actual reasons for voting patterns among non-regular workers found that 12.1
percent of irregular workers said that the lack of voting time led to their low turnout. Most of them rarely
favoredtheproposedlongervotinghourstoboostthevotingrate.
Also, though the labor standard law and public official election law guarantee the right for workers to
vote, most temporary workers are not given off-work time to vote. According to the research, since most
employersrarelypermittime-offfortemporaryworkers,43.3percentofirregular-employedworkersdonot
vote.
Obviously, longer voting hours is not the only solution for boosting the voting turnout. The irregular-
workers do not need extended ballot time but improved labor conditions giving them more opportunity to
vote.Withtheirpoorlaborconditionsscarcelyguaranteeingtherighttovote,non-regularworkersdonotsee
improvedlaborconditionsoccurringthroughvoting.
Democracyguardsandrespectstherightsoftheindividualbyenablingthemtovotefortheirrepresentative.
Nothing is more important than expanding a citizen’s constitutional right to engage in democracy. To
improve labor conditions for the irregular-employed workers, it is necessary to enhance their right to vote
forthecandidatewhomakesmostefforttoimprovelaborcondition.TheNationalAssemblyshouldfindthe
effectivepolicyforboostingthevotingrateratherthanmakingpoliticaltrouble.
www.theargus.org

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