2017 Election Visitor Program for the 19th Presidential Elections

Back in the first and second week of May, the staff here in the Administration and International Affairs Division were delighted to host the Election Visitor Program for the 19th Presidential Election. This important election, which was scheduled for December 20 but brought forward after the former President was impeached in April, was an opportunity for the NEC to host election management bodies (EMBs) and international organizations from around the world to enlighten participants about the Korean election system and encourage the sharing of knowledge and best practices. 

Unlike traditional election observations, the NEC’s International Election Visitor Program, or EVP for short, focuses on exchanging election knowledge and experience between the NEC and participants, and among the participants themselves. The NEC provided funding and support to invite participants from EMBs in transitional or young democracies to encourage the development of election management practices and also international organizations involved in election management in democracy. The EVP is all about learning, strengthening capacity and continuing to build a worldwide family of election management experts. 

The 2017 program lasted for around a week, allowing participants to be briefed before voting and to observe both early voting and the voting process on election day. The schedule was designed to ensure the participants had a mix of direct experience of election management and discussions together with other participants and the major democracy-related institutes in Korea. The packed schedule was as follows:

	May 4 (Thu)	May 5 (Fri)	May 6 (Sat)	May 7 (Sun)	May 8 (Mon)	May 9 (Tue)	May 10 (Wed)
Morning	Participants Arrived and Registered	Opening ceremony and mock early voting	Visited Lotte Tower and watched election campaigning	Participated in the Seoul International Forum on Elections	Visited the Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy (KOCEI)	Viewed the opening of polling stations	Closing briefing
Afternoon		Visited early voting polling stations	Visited Gyeongbuk Palace and watched election campaigning		Visited the NEC and the National Assembly	Visited polling stations during voting and counting stations in the evening	Participants departed

With early voting taking place Thursday and Friday, participants started the first full day of the program with a full description of the Korean election system and mock early voting set up by the NEC. Election officials were walked through the voting process step-by-step and were able to cast their ballot paper in our mock vote! The example also showcased the various technology that has been introduced by the NEC into the Korean election system over the past decade, including the ballot paper printer that is used in the polling station during early voting and the optical scan ballot sorting machine used in counting. 

The weekend was a slightly more relaxed but no less productive period for the participants. Saturday gave everyone chance to unwind and recover from their long flights, spending some time learning about Korean culture, visiting various sights in Seoul and also taking a stop by some of the campaigning going on around the city. With everyone in the swing of the program, on Sunday the participants all joined the Seoul International Forum on Elections 2017 and cultural event at the Mayfield Hotel, another of our major events of the year. More will be coming about that soon!

The real heart of the program came from Monday to Wednesday. Monday was a day of a lot of travel and meetings at the KOCEI office, the NEC and the National Assembly. Split into three groups and rotating around the offices to ensure that everyone had a chance to discuss the issues at hand. The election day then finally arrived on Tuesday, and it was early start to watch the opening of the ballot boxes in the early hours of the morning at 6am. After a bit of rest after dawn rise, participants spent the afternoon visiting polling stations in their small groups before watching the closing of polls at the later hour of 8pm (due to this being a special election). Everyone then moved together with ballot boxes to the counting center to view the counting, ensuring that all participants were able to view every single stage the election process in great detail. 

To wrap up, everyone gathered back together on Wednesday morning before they departed to present their ideas and observations from election day. There was a good deal of discussion about the differences between Korea’s election system and the participant’s own systems as well as ideas on best practices. With the high level of expertise present at the EVP, including senior level officials from various EMB’s as well as international experts, the level of discussion was very high and everyone at the NEC was delighted that everyone appeared to find the program very productive. 

We would like to thank every single one of the 36 EMB’s and organizations and all the participants that flew a long way to be here in Korea for this important election. The NEC will continue to both hold and participate in events such as these to share knowledge and experience and be part of an every growing community of like-minded EMBs focused on developing democracy.