[Initial Moment] The Value of My One Vote

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Jong-hwa] The by-elections are just one day away. Some people may have already visited early voting stations or have the election on their to-do list for tomorrow, waiting for the day.

Since election day is not a holiday, some may have given up participating due to work or other circumstances. Regardless of time and conditions, there are also quite a few people who hesitate to vote because they are uninterested in political events or find no appealing options among the candidates and their pledges.

Whether or not you participate in the election, if you are a voter, I hope you take an interest in the 'election costs' at least once. As expected, it costs an enormous amount of money.

According to the National Election Commission, the total amount spent on electing 21 officials?including the metropolitan mayors of Seoul and Busan, 19 local government heads, and local council members nationwide?is 93.29 billion KRW, with 57.1 billion KRW for the Seoul mayoral election and 25.3 billion KRW for the Busan mayoral election.

The budget for the previous election of these 21 officials, held on June 13, 2018, during the 7th simultaneous local elections, reached 1.07 trillion KRW. This included 511.3 billion KRW for voting and counting costs and 506.3 billion KRW for reimbursement and burden costs. At that time, the total number of voters was 42.97 million, so the voting cost per voter was 25,000 KRW.

However, local elections have low voter turnout, resulting in a significant amount of wasted costs. The turnout then was 60.2%. With 39.8% or 17.1 million voters not voting, 40% of the 1.07 trillion KRW, or 426 billion KRW, was effectively lost.

Moreover, by-elections are ideally something to avoid. Re-elections occur when the elected candidate is disqualified due to violating election laws, and by-elections fill vacancies caused by death or resignation of elected officials. Particularly, the causes of this Seoul and Busan by-election are all due to disgraceful and horrific acts of power-related sexual scandals.

Spending such astronomical costs to hold elections that should not have been necessary is infuriating once you realize this fact. The voices saying "the elected candidates or parties responsible for the by-elections should bear the election costs" are gaining traction because why should the public pay with their taxes for individual wrongdoings?

With the election just a day away, it is difficult to end this article with a positive message urging readers, as voters who are the roots of democracy and the source of political power, to surely exercise their precious vote, given the disappointing words and actions seen from the political sphere so far.

Rather, the more one reflects, the greater the cynicism and indifference grow, but let us steady our minds by recalling some famous quotes.

Playwright Bernard Shaw, a master of sharp satire, said, "In a democratic society, elections are the process by which the incompetent majority elects the corrupt minority," mocking the risk of representative democracy devolving into mob rule by fools.

Activist Ham Seok-heon said, "Politics is the process of choosing the least bad people. If you don't vote because you think all are bad, the worst will be elected." Dosan Ahn Chang-ho also said, "Those who participate are the owners; those who do not are guests." Western philosopher Plato said, "If the people are indifferent to politics, they must be ruled by the worst," and French political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville delivered the piercing truth, "Every people gets the government it deserves."

We, each citizen, must participate in politics and act as watchdogs of political power, and elections are the way to participate. Let us not take the value of our single vote lightly as just one among millions or as a few tens of thousands of won spent per voter.