Students at universities across Korea have kicked off elections for student representatives, but many of this year’s contests have been stained by accusations of election fraud and lack of participation.

Last month, Korea University was embroiled in an election scandal concerning last year’s vote. A student surnamed Shin claimed that a previous president of the university student council had violated his duty to remain impartial in the election and urged students to vote for a certain candidate via social networking services.

The former president, who was also head of the election committee, urged his fellow members of the committee to support the candidate and left specific instructions not to leave any evidence of their meddling.

Amid mounting criticism following the revelation, the winner of last year’s election and incumbent president resigned from his post and dropped out of university. The election was postponed for a week.

The student council at Wonkwang University in North Jeolla Province was also suspected of election fraud. On Nov. 14, some students held a press conference to voice their concerns and demand a revote.

A student at Wonkwang even got entangled in a legal dispute after claiming that graduates of the school were interfering in the election.

During the election for the heads of school societies at Chung-Ang University, one of the candidates accused the incumbent president and the head of the election committee of fraudulent acts. He claimed that the president conspired with other two candidates to sabotage his campaign.

According to his statement posted on Facebook, the president told the other candidates that they needed to work together to “take down the public enemy.” The election committee decided on a revote.

While elections at some schools were put off because of scandals, others were postponed due to a lack of participation.

The student body at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies had to hold off its election until April because nobody had entered the race. School officials speculated that the pressure of preparing for the job market may have prevented them from running as candidates.

Seoul National University managed to get a solitary candidate for the election, but the turnout fell woefully short of the minimum number of votes required to qualify as an official election.

In a desperate bid to boost the voting rate, the election commission bombarded students with text messages urging them to vote. But the tactic backfired when students started firing back with complaints.

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)