KOREA: Mobile voting shakes up liberal race

Unexpectedly high participation in mobile phone voting puts Sohn Hak-kyu back into the UNDP primary race

The Korea Herald
Thursday, October 11, 2007

The United New Democratic Party's first-ever round of mobile voting on Tuesday drew higher-than-expected voter participation, shaking up the liberal party's presidential nomination race.

In Tuesday's poll, a whopping 70.6 percent of 300,000 registered voters cast ballots via cellular phone. Voter turnout at the previous eight rounds of primary elections averaged 19 percent.

It was the first time that mobile voting was used in an election in Korea, where some eight of 10 people use cellular phones.

The results were unexpected.

Former Gyeonggi Province Governor Sohn Hak-kyu, who did not win in any previous rounds, received 36.5 percent of the vote, beating frontrunner and former Unification Minister Chung Dong-young's 33.5 percent. Former Prime Minister Lee Hae-chan finished last with 6,285 votes or 30.0 percent.

In addition to the mobile voting, the UNDP has held primary elections at polling booths in major cities and provinces since Sept. 15.

Even though Sohn is well behind Chung in the overall count, he could make a comeback in the mobile voting, political analysts said.

"Sohn has seized the opportunity to make a turnaround," said Lee Kyung-heon, the director of Polcom, a political consulting agency.

The pro-government party plans to hold two rounds of mobile voting between Oct. 10 and Oct. 14.

The party will also hold the remaining primary elections in major cities and provinces Oct. 14.

The final tallies will be announced at a party convention on Oct. 15.

Political analysts said the new system helped the unpopular party rejuvenate attention among young voters. The liberals suffer from single-digit approval ratings, lagging far behind conservative candidate Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, who has more than 55 percent of the public's support.

"Fortunately enough, it revived public interest in the party's primary race. The new system made the race intriguing," Kim said.

With the new system, voters do not need to go to polling stations to vote. Cell phone voters registered online between Sept. 17 and Oct. 10. Voting is done via an automatic response system accessed on the voting day with a password obtained upon registration.

Chung, a television-anchor-turned-politician, said he will stay ahead of Sohn, noting that Sohn led in the mobile voting by only 3 percent and that his popularity with the general public is inching up.

Tuesday's results were a setback to Chung, who has faced mounting allegations of campaign irregularities by his aides.

Investigators at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency are stepping up a probe into alleged illegal voter registration by Chung's campaign team. The police plan to announce the results of their probe on Oct. 12.

Kim Hyun-mi, a spokesperson for the Chung team, said that his loss in the first mobile vote has spurred supporters to rally around him.

"The campaign office was bombarded with phone calls from voters who asked about how to vote via mobile phone," she said.

However, Sohn spokesperson Woo Sang-ho said, "The mobile voting, which reflects public sentiment most accurately, will serve as a stepping stone for Sohn to make a comeback."

Before the primary elections kicked off on Sept. 15, Sohn had consistently been ahead of Chung in public opinion polls, but lagged in when voters had to go to polling stations to cast votes.

Woo also said, "I believe the mobile revolution has just started," adding that just as Roh Moo-hyun became president in 2002 with support from internet-savvy young voters, cell phone users will propel Sohn into the nation's top job.

The UNDP introduced the mobile voting system in an effort to expand public interest in the party's primary race.

The new method, however, has raised concerns about possible proxy voting and violation of the democratic principle of a secret ballot.

A candidate could collect supporters' cell phones and cast multiple votes by proxy.

The new system also risks running counter to the constitutional principle of a secret ballot, critics say, raising the possibility that supporters of a particular candidate can get together and cast ballots openly.

Date Posted: 10/11/2007