Secretary General Kim Yong-Hi of the NEC gave a lecture about “Directions for Overseas Voting for the 20th National Assembly Election” to 175 heads of diplomatic offices around the world in a conference hall in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Korea on 3rd of April.

Secretary General Kim said free and fair overseas voting can be realized only through the strict neutrality and impartial management by heads of diplomatic offices. He also stressed the importance of their roles such as creating a clean and fair election culture, encouraging the participation of overseas nationals and preparing for seamless election management.

He also laid out the overall schedule of overseas voting, including the preparation status of the overseas voting, mock overseas voting, establishment of overseas election commission and overseas voters’ registration.

As Secretary General Kim also holds the Secretary General position of the Association of World Election Bodies, or A-WEB, he explained a number of major on-going projects of A-WEB, including projects to support fledgling democracies such as Kyrgyz Republic and Kenya for developing their election system and training programs for electoral officials. He also emphasized the need of active support and cooperation of the heads of diplomatic offices for the projects.

Meanwhile, the NEC’s preparation for overseas voting is now in full swing, starting from ‘the education program for its staff in charge of overseas voting’ regarding the 20th National Assembly election. In June, 20 staff will be dispatched to 20 diplomatic offices in 9 countries, and manage the election-related affairs including procedural administration, promotion of clean and fair election and prevention and investigation into violation of election laws.