The Korean Civic Education Institute for Democracy (KOCEI), under the National Election Commission (NEC) of the Republic of Korea, hosted its 20 Year Anniversary Ceremony at the KOCEI main office in Suwon on Friday, May 27. 

At the ceremony around 200 people participated, including staff from Si/Do democratic citizenship education centers, the advisory committees of Si/Do democratic citizenship education centers, Professors, staff from democratic citizenship and politics academies and officials from societal and voter organizations. 

Since its inception in May 1996, KOCEI has grown into an education and research institute for improving election and political culture and fostering healthy democratic citizenship through programs such as training for election and party officials, education for voters and future voters, and training for the public officials of the National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea. 

KOCEI has expanded democratic citizenship education alongside citizens such as lecture contests and future leaders political camps while meanwhile has consistently implemented customized training depending on the demands of the audience such as supporting democratic elections classes, training for women’s participation in politics and training for multi-cultural families.  

In addition, since 2006 KOCEI has expanded its international exchange and cooperation through projects such as hosting training programs targeting 430 international election stakeholders from 45 countries around the world, and at the same time it has been contributing to the development of democracy worldwide.

KOCEI announced that “with the relocation plan to Suwon in 2017 ahead of us, we, together with citizens, will encourage voter’s education such as short-and long-term education and training measures and lifetime democratic citizenship education. Meanwhile we will make this anniversary a starting point for KOCEI to make further steps to become a professional democratic citizenship organization by reflecting on the last 20 years and preparing for the future.”