Thumb People Could Decide South Korean Elections
NAM, News Feature, Peter Schurmann and Aruna Lee, Posted: Oct 22, 2007
Editor’s Note: Lowering the voting age to nineteen and introducing voting by text message in a country where 87 percent of the population own cell phones might just engage a whole new generation in the electoral system in South Korea. But could the “thumb generation” also turn presidential elections into American Idol? NAM contributors Peter Schurmann and Aruna Lee report from Seoul.
SEOUL - As the race for the next president of South Korea heats up, the introduction of text message voting has created a stir among the electorate here. The newest candidate to enter the fray is former TV news anchorman and the liberal United New Democratic Party (UNDP) favorite Chung Dong-young, who rode to victory in recent primary elections on the fingertips of cell-phone wielding supporters.
Chung's opponent is former Seoul mayor and presidential favorite Lee Myung-bak, head of the conservative opposition Grand National Party. And while Lee enjoys a wide margin of support, recent reports show that Chung's popularity is rising, particularly among Korea's younger voters.
A recent editorial in Korea's Joongang Daily referred to the growing population of "thumb people," cell-phone users who can send a detailed text message in the blink of an eye. Cell phones and text messaging are in fact so ubiquitous here that they have now made their way into South Korea's developing democratic institutions, leading to another catch-all phrase: mobile-voting.
UNDP primaries opened on October 9, with mobile voting open to the first 30,000 registered voters to apply online. Several rounds followed, with Chung declaring victory over his UNDP rivals on October 15.
Election day is set for December 19, and will be the first election following the lowering of the voting age from 20 to 19, raising the number of eligible voters to 37 million, seven percent more than the previous election in 2002. In one of the world's most tech-savvy countries, where an estimated 87 percent of people own at least one cell phone, these new, younger voters represent a considerable voting bloc that can be reached at the tip of a finger.
South Korea is not the first country to implement text-message voting. Switzerland did it in its general elections in 2005, with nearly 17,000 people voting via computer or cell phone. And while overall turnout was low in the UNDP primaries, with only 20 percent of registered voters turning up at the ballot boxes, votes sent in via text message counted for nearly 70 percent of all votes cast.
Yet while mobile voting holds the promise of increased voter participation, not all in Korea are giving it a thumbs-up. Yoon Duk-woo is a former journalist who worked on the campaign of female presidential candidate Park Geun-hye in an earlier election. He says that while mobile voting opens the electoral process to wider participation, it also creates potential voting irregularities that can significantly undermine election results.
"With this new system anyone can register to send in a vote via text message, voting for a candidate less likely to win in the primaries," says Yoon, who compares mobile voting to often inaccurate election polling results. Voters can sabotage elections by intentionally voting for the weaker candidate in a primary if they get access to registration for the text message voting system. There are also fears of voting fraud.
Another editorial from the Joongang Daily refers to mobile voting as a "show" meant to lure voters away from substantive issues the author argues neither candidate seems willing to address.
He recalls how during the military rule of the 1980s television viewers were allowed to phone in votes on their favorite performers, not unlike today's American Idol. "Democracy," he writes, "was realized in show business before politics."
Indeed text message voting was introduced by the UNDP as a means of generating greater interest and voter participation in their primaries, which have seen a steady decline in turnout since the election of current President Roh Moo-hyun in 2002. Mobile voting "revived public interest in the primary race," writes one analyst for the Korea Herald. "The new system made the race intriguing."
Connecting to the public has in fact become a major theme of the race, with both Chung and Lee portraying themselves as everyman candidates in touch with the general working class electorate.
In his victory speech Chung referred to his childhood years following the Korean War. Having lost four older brothers and being raised by his mother, who worked as a seamstress in one of Seoul's bustling outdoor markets, Chung said he understood the daily struggles of Korea's working class. Lee, whose personal wealth amounts to well above several millions, has also hearkened back to an impoverished past.
While both candidates jockey for position, reaching out to an ever broader spectrum of voters, one thing is certain: the future of South Korean politics appears to be in the people's hands.
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