🇰🇷South Korea Election: How to Vote in a Pandemic
Hello! Welcome to the fourth newsletter of the week and an election special of Inside The Newsroom, where we’ll dissect South Korea’s election that took place on Wednesday. I’ve bored you more than usual this week, so I’ll keep today short and sweet. The election was the first major election held in a country significantly hit by the coronavirus, which gave other nations with upcoming elections a blueprint to follow. President Moon Jae-in’s ruling Democratic Party won the largest majority since the country rejigged its constitution more than 30 years ago. Below is the bare bones of what happened. Stay safe and I’ll see you next week. Enjoy 🇰🇷
What Went Down on Wednesday?
Wednesday’s election was one of the most historic in South Korea’s history, as the left-leaning Democratic Party of Korea and it’s smaller affiliate the Together Citizens’ Party won 180 seats from a possible 300, an increase of 52. It’s the largest majority by any party in the National Assembly since the country’s current democratic constitution was established in 1987. The right-leaning United Future Party and its affiliate the Future Korea Party won 103 seats, a decrease of nine, including a North Korean defector becoming the first to win a South Korean parliamentary seat.
In the first nationwide election in a country hit significantly by the coronavirus, turnout was 66.2 percent, the highest of any parliamentary election since 1992. In another record, more than a quarter of the country's 44 million voters participated in early voting. The result was a clear show of support for President Moon’s handling of the coronavirus, whose approval rating dipped below 40 percent in October, due to slow economic growth and stalling talks with neighbour North Korea, but jumped to 57 percent prior to election day.
South Korea + Pandemic = Low Cases and Deaths
South Korea has been one of the highest profile countries, partly because of its proximity to Wuhan — the outbreak’s original epicentre — but also because of its extremely low number of confirmed cases and deaths. For example: South Korea, a population of more than 50 million, has just 10,613 confirmed cases and 229 confirmed deaths. The UK, however, whose population sits at around 65 million, has 103,093 confirmed cases and 13,729 confirmed deaths. While President Moon was testing up to 15,000 of his people per day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson was shaking hands with coronavirus patients at a local hospital. Fuck me. I need some hard drugs.
Rant over. Korea’s response to the coronavirus has been nothing short of spectacular. Moon’s administration kept the number of cases and deaths in his country ridiculously low, and the voters rewarded common sense and competence with a landslide. Quick shout out to the Financial Times’ John Burn-Murdoch who has absolutely nailed coverage of cases and deaths.
How to Hold a Coronavirus Election
Let me just say that holding any election during the worst pandemic in 100 years is a terrible idea and I don’t agree with it, no matter its size or importance. But following on from its first-class coronavirus response, South Korea appears to have shown other countries, who will inevitably still hold their ballots, a plan to follow. If someone is going to do something dangerous anyway, we might as well make it as safe as possible.
Millions of Koreans lined up to vote on Wednesday kitted out in face masks, plastic gloves and their temperature tested by public officials upon arrival. Voters were also allowed to vote early by mail, something I know is still not available in many of the most “democratic” countries. But we shouldn’t jump too far ahead. We must monitor Korea’s new confirmed cases closely in the coming days, as any large spike will almost certainly be because of the election. Overnight, there were 22 more cases, which is in line with its daily growth rate in recent weeks. Anyway, the Wall Street Journal excellently illustrated all the steps officials took to keep voters as safe as possible, including regularly cleaning doorknobs…
Next week…
#71 — Andrea Jones-Rooy (Social scientist, comedian, circus performer) shooting the shit about life, journalism and other things
#72 — Ryan Broderick (BuzzFeed) on the 15th anniversary of YouTube
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