Autumn 2017 Election Observations

With presidential elections taking place earlier than expected and local elections not scheduled until June next year, the NEC is currently fulfilling its roles that it usually performs outside of an election period. This includes recommending changes to election law, evaluating the outcomes of previous elections and administering political funds and political parties. This period also allows the NEC to participate in election observations around the world to improve the capabilities of the NEC staff and build further knowledge of the trends in election management.

This autumn the NEC took part in a number of observations across various countries, mostly in Europe, sending between five and ten delegations per visit. As well as observing the relevant voting and counting processes, each delegation met with the relevant election management body to learn about how they manage each election within their jurisdiction and to build further cooperation between the NEC and other like-minded organizations.

NEC Staff visited the following major elections:

• Norwegian legislative elections (September 11)
• German legislative elections (September 24)
• Swiss local and national referendums (September 24)
• Austrian legislative elections (October 15)
• Canadian local elections (October 16)
• Virginia statewide elections (November 7)

These observations have allowed NEC staff to experience different election management structures and electoral systems to develop their expertise. All these elections had very different forms of elections including first-past-the-post, different types of proportional representation systems and referendums, allowing staff to gain a broader knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of each system.

The visit to Frankfurt, Germany had an additional focus, with staff from the NEC’s PR division joining the delegates and making a short documentary about the elections that will appear on our eTV channel in the near future. This is part of the NEC’s drive to support additional civic education on its channel to keep voters informed of how elections around the world work.

The delegates had a more extensive schedule that also included going to selected schools to watch ‘juniorwahl’ elections, where high school students choose a youth legislative body as part of a special civic education program. Students enthusiastically took part and understood the rights and responsibilities that come with coming of political age. This was an incredibly interesting experience that inspired our experts about different ways to teach young voters about the electoral system.

The visit to Switzerland also allowed our staff to take a look into the very unique political system in the country, which encourages a large amount of direct participation in the form of referendums on specific laws and policies. In these referendums, postal voting is extensively used and is by far the most popular way for people to vote, which is very different to the early voting system used here in Korea. This allowed our staff to compare the two and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each method.

Overall, these observations play a crucial role in the constant development of the NEC and help to build further relations with other election management bodies to help improve democracy here in Korea and hopefully worldwide.