Independent presidential candidate Ahn Cheol-soo held a virtual town hall meeting at his campaign headquarters on Friday in an effort to woo overseas Korean voters, who will be eligible to participate in the presidential election for the first time this year.

Young Korean voters primarily in their 20s residing in the United States, Japan, Norway, Malaysia and other countries asked Ahn questions over video chat in real-time. Also present at the forum were Facebook and Twitter users as well as campaign volunteers.

Ahn walked in carrying his signature black North Face backpack and a wide smile across his face, considerably more at ease than he was in previous official political outings. His bodyguards stood at a distance behind the audience as the computer software mogul curiously looked at the array of flatscreen TVs and video equipment standing in front of him.

“So, what’s in your backpack?” asked Kim Yong-soo, a 27-year-old campaign volunteer who was the first to take the podium. 

“I have been carrying this bag for 10 years now,” Ahn replied, proceeding to unzip his bag to reveal the contents. “I carry today’s newspapers, foreign magazines, various memos, and also a toothbrush.”

Ahn then faced the webcam to take questions from overseas voters. A Twitter user asked what he thought of Korean companies’ practice of requiring English test scores such as TOEIC even from those whose work will not involve English.

“Our country is often called a ‘spec society,’” Ahn replied, referring to the rat race among college students to pad their resumes with better “specifications” in their search for jobs that often yield a pool of homogenous resumes for company recruiters. “Because there aren’t many ways to distinguish between candidates, test scores prove to be one such way, and that leads to an ongoing negative cycle.”

Ahn added that the government sector should lead the way in not asking for English test scores if the area of work does not involve the use of English.

The virtual town hall meeting comes a day after the National Election Commission announced the low registration rate among overseas voters. The Commission announced on Thursday that with 10 days left before the registration deadline, only 5.9 percent of eligible voters overseas had registered to vote ahead of the upcoming Dec. 19 presidential election.

“Having to spend a total of four hours to cast a vote is a difficult investment to make,” replied Ahn when a college student in upstate New York expressed frustrations that he would have to travel two hours to Manhattan to vote. “But voting is a precious opportunity in taking our future into our own hands. Even if it is difficult to vote this year, please do cast your vote with a sense of duty in the days to come.”

By Samuel Songhoon Lee 
(songhoon@heraldcorp.com)