The NEC held a meeting for the fair management of the 18th Presidential election with attendance of chairpersons of 17 Si/Do election commissions on November 19th.

The chairperson of the NEC (Mr. Nung-Hwan KIM) asked the chairpersons of Si/Do election commissions to make a lot of efforts for expanding and developing the voters-oriented management of the Presidential election, as he stressed out that the fair management of elections is the most important mission the Constitution endows the NEC with; and it is the responsibility of the NEC to create an environment for voting participation without any inconvenience.

The NEC has decided to focus on following matters and ordered to come up with concrete measures: strict observation of the law and guidelines; provision of transportation for areas with traffic inconvenience including agricultural and fishing villages; expansion of publicity activities for securing voting participation of working people; reinforcement of election information service for the public including the service “Find My Polling Station”; and expansion of voting convenience for handicapped voters.

In particular, it pointed out that thorough preparation and inspection is needed for the flawless voting and counting; and the fairness should be secured as expanding participation of the persons concerned including political parties and observers in major procedures of election management.

When it comes to the prevention and enforcement against election law violations, serious election crimes should be dealt with in a prompt and strict way, while the political expression of the public and activities of civic groups and social organizations are allowed as long as the law permits.

Especially, in terms of illegal activities of groups and organizations, stringent actions including the order of shutdown will be taken against illegal organizations for campaigning after thorough investigation on the founding philosophy and source of funds of groups and organizations.

Add to that, as strengthening the screening of the Internet and SNS, the NEC will trace and investigate distributors of libel and malicious propaganda; and file charges against those cases to the prosecution or bring those to the prosecuting authority for further investigation.

On top of that, in order to create an atmosphere for policy-oriented elections, it will continue working on projects for promoting policy-oriented campaigns with the press and civic groups, as it designated the week of ‘Know the Policies and Pledges Right’ (for a week from December 12) to promote voters’ interest and participation in policy-oriented elections.

< Main Schedule for the 18^th Presidential Election>

l  Nov. 21 - Nov. 25 : Application period for absentee voting

l  Nov.25 - Nov. 26 : Candidate registration

l  Nov. 27 - Dec. 18 : Official election campaign period

l  Dec. 13 - Dec. 14 : Voting of the absentee voters

l  Dec. 19 : Election day ( voting & counting)