Seoul City’s ‘Pilot Project for Electronic Voting Activation in Maintenance Projects’ No. 1
Gwanak-gu Miseong-dong Geonyeong Apartment Reconstruction Association General Meeting Held
City: "Support Targets to More Than Double in Main Project Next Year"
The “Pilot Project for Revitalizing Electronic Voting in Maintenance Projects” promoted by the Seoul Metropolitan Government is showing tangible results. On the 28th, the city announced that the Gwanak-gu Miseong-dong Geonyeong Apartment Reconstruction Association, the first pilot project association, successfully held a general meeting by introducing electronic voting.
Members attending the regular general meeting of the reconstruction association of Geonyeong Apartment in Miseong-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul, are experiencing electronic voting. Photo by Seoul City
According to the city, the Miseong-dong Geonyeong Apartment Reconstruction Association held a general meeting on the 26th to handle five agenda items, including the next year’s business budget plan. Generally, for the association’s general meeting resolution, a majority of members must attend (including advance voting) and a majority of attending members must agree, with at least 10% of members physically attending on the day of the meeting. Although the Miseong-dong Geonyeong Apartment Reconstruction Association has 526 members, many members reside in areas other than the complex, causing difficulties in securing quorum and voting rates whenever the general meeting was held.
With the introduction of electronic voting, the association shortened the advance voting period to within 10 days. The advance electronic voting rate reached 53%. Previously, advance voting was conducted by sending and receiving written consent forms via registered mail, which took more than three weeks. Notably, in this general meeting, electronic voters accounted for 80% of the total voters.
Another advantage of electronic voting is that the association could check the voting rate in real time, and members could check detailed information on the agenda anytime and anywhere through their mobile phones. A representative of the association said, “By introducing electronic voting, we were able to reduce the costs usually spent on explaining and promoting the agenda,” adding, “If electronic methods such as online general meetings are introduced to association meetings, the association’s work will become much easier.”
The Seoul Metropolitan Government’s pilot project to revitalize electronic voting in maintenance projects supports 50% of the electronic voting implementation costs. Following the government’s August 8 real estate measures announcement this year, the city is promoting this project using the ICT regulatory sandbox system to support redevelopment and reconstruction. After a public recruitment in August and September, the pilot project participating associations and electronic voting service providers were selected. Starting with the Miseong-dong Geonyeong Apartment Association this month, electronic voting will be sequentially supported for four associations next month and five associations in December.
Han Byung-yong, Director of the Seoul Housing Office, said, “Interest in electronic voting among associations has increased through this pilot project,” and added, “We will share the pilot project results with many associations and expand the support target more than twice when promoting the main project next year so that more associations can benefit.”
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