The National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC) announced that the curtain of overseas voting finally rose as the NEC established and began operating the Overseas Voting Commissions (OVCs) for the 20th National Assembly elections at 169 diplomatic missions around the world from October 16.

The established OVCs will be in operation until May 13, 2016 and manage the overseas voting for the 20th National Assembly elections to be conducted in 2016.

The OVCs will fulfill its duties such as operating overseas polling stations, preventing and regulating election crimes, and supervising election management and administrative work that overseas election officers carry out.

Each OVC consists of four commissioners: two members nominated by the NEC, one member respectively recommended by each political party that has formed a negotiating group in the National Assembly, and one member recommended by the head of the diplomatic missions and then appointed by the NEC. The NEC has appointed a total of 611 members who are fair and neutral for the OVCs.

Alongside launching of the overseas voting, the NEC will closely manage the overseas voting by operating the 24-hour overseas voting situation room. Also, 169 OVCs will operate the Election Law Violation Reporting Center in order to foster an atmosphere of clean and fair elections and regulate election crimes.

Meanwhile, an OVC does not operate at five diplomatic missions: three missions in Afghanistan, Libya, and Yemen, where is currently in an unstable situation due to civil war or other social unrest, and two missions in Georgia and Madagascar in which the missions have recently been established so an overseas voting management system is not yet in place.

The OVC, however, may be set up in the above five diplomatic missions where an OVC is not established if the NEC decides that overseas voting management can be normally conducted before the overseas voting period.

The NEC stated that it will make the utmost effort to manage overseas voting in a fair manner through the promotion of overseas Koreans’ participation in the election, thorough management of applications for overseas voter registration, and prevention activities against the violation of election law. 

In addition, the NEC asked overseas Koreans for their active cooperation and participation, and called for the Korean people to show a keen interest towards elections so that successful overseas voting will serve as an opportunity to let the world know the advanced and mature election culture of the Republic of Korea.
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