South Korean lawmakers raise concerns over Chinese voters

Election Commission officials sort out ballots for counting at the local elections in Seoul, last June

Members of South Korea’s ruling conservative party have proposed a bill that would place tighter restrictions on the voting rights of foreign permanent residents in local elections, which they insist is necessary to protect the country’s democracy from being undermined by Chinese voters.

Critics say the efforts to pass the bill could exacerbate racism and hatred toward Chinese people living in South Korea and would be a step back in an increasingly multicultural society that needs to embrace immigration to make up for an aging and shrinking population.

People Power Party lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong, a close ally of President Yoon Suk Yeol, said yesterday it has become crucial to prevent the voting system from being exploited as a “maneuvering tool” by other governments. He said, without elaborating, that there’s “significant” public concern over the political influence of Chinese nationals, who accounted for nearly 100,000 of the 127,600 foreigners with voting rights as of March.

“Most of our citizens living overseas don’t have voting rights (in the countries they live in),” Kweon said on Facebook. “(Voting) is obviously impossible in communist countries like China, and the United States and Britain are only giving voting rights to those with citizenship,” which means South Korea’s voting laws go against the principle of reciprocity, he said.

Under current law, foreign nationals with at least three years of permanent residency are eligible to vote for mayors, governors, and local council members.

The bill, submitted by Kweon and 17 other members of his party, limits voting rights to foreigners who have lived in South Korea for at least five years after becoming permanent residents and are from countries which, by treaty or similar agreements, also allow South Korean permanent residents to vote in their elections.

Kweon’s office said it didn’t know of any country that would fit that criteria. South Korea’s National Election Commission said several nations — including Sweden, Denmark, Iceland and Chile — allow foreigners to vote in local elections if they had stayed there for a certain number of years.

“The number of foreign nationals staying in the country is increasing, and when their tendency to live concentrated in certain areas is combined with the characteristics of the local elections, there is high concern that the opinions of our people would be distorted,” the lawmakers said in a statement describing why they drafted the bill. MDT/AP