National Election Commission to push for amendment of relevant law


The nation’s election watchdog on Friday decided to allow all election campaigns using social networking services and other online tools without time restriction, opening a new era in electioneering. 

People will be able to post their pictures at the voting booth and encourage others to cast their votes for certain candidates even on voting day or before the official campaigning period on their Twitter or Facebook pages, the National Election Commission said.

Election authorities plan to request a relevant law revision in the National Assembly.

According to the NEC, the decision came as the Constitutional Court recently ruled against Clause One of Article 93 of the Public Official Election Act ― which prohibits circulation and display of advertisements, posters, photographs, documents, videos and other items carrying messages in support of or in opposition to a specific party or candidate from being circulated for 180 days prior to voting.

Previously, the watchdog clamped down on SNS users expressing their political views online on the voting day or before the official campaign season. It has demanded about 70,000 online articles be removed for this reason, authorities said.

The ruling is expected to change campaigning, as SNS tools have emerged as one of the strongest means of promotion among young people.

According to Tweetmix, a consulting company specializing in SNS analysis, 985,158 articles mentioning Na Kyung-won and Park Won-soon, Seoul mayoral candidates during the Oct. 26 by-elections last year, were posted on Twitter. The figure is about 10 times the 95,792 articles referring to candidates in the April 27 by-elections. Observers expect the Twitter volume to skyrocket for the upcoming general and presidential elections slated for April 11 and Dec. 19, respectively.

In order to woo tech-savvy and individualistic young voters, political parties have striven to make use of the trend.

The ruling Grand National Party decided to reflect the usage of Twitter and other SNS tools of lawmaker-aspirants in selection of parliamentary election candidates.

Opposition parties, including the Democratic Unified Party also decided to strengthen SNS activities though they already have some active Twitter users like Rep. Chung Dong-young and Park Young-sun, whose Twitter feeds have tens of thousands of followers.

Han Sang-ki, head of the Social Computing Institute, said SNS would play a larger role in the future.

“In the past, large assemblies such as protests or online communities used to gather and generate public opinion. But it seems evident that SNS is taking over,” he said. 

By Bae Ji-sook
(baejisook@heraldcorp.com)