South Korea election: Government response to coronavirus sees surge in support and high turnout

‘They made the best of the virus,’ says one voter, as country holds world’s first election during coronavirus pandemic

A South Korean woman wearing a mask and plastic gloves casts her vote in the parliamentary election on 15 April amid the coronavirus outbreak (Getty)

South Korean president Moon Jae-in’s Democratic Party surged to a majority of seats on Wednesday in the South’s fractious national assembly, in the first national elections held anywhere since the coronavirus pandemic swept the world.

In fact, Moon’s left-leaning party, which rose to power three years ago after the impeachment and jailing of the conservative Park Geun-hye, owed its success in part to strong measures for countering the spread of the virus that first broke out in Korea in late January.

Defying calls to postpone the voting, South Korea’s national election commission insisted on carrying out the entire process on schedule as proof of the nation’s ability to fight the global pandemic. By the time the polls closed, 66.2 per cent – nearly two-thirds of the country’s 44 million eligible voters – had gone to the polls, the highest turnout in 28 years.

They did so under extraordinary conditions. All voters had to stand at least a metre apart in queues where they had their temperatures taken, and were required to wear face masks and plastic gloves, and spray their hands with sanitisers before entering polling booths and dropping paper ballots into boxes.

Polls indicated the Minjoo Party soaring to a clear majority of the 300 assembly seats after having ruled with the aid of one or two minor parties since the last assembly elections four years ago. The result was sure to enhance the authority of President Moon, who won a snap election in 2017 after the “Candlelight Revolution” of 2016 and 2017 that ended nearly a decade of conservative rule.

“The coronavirus helped a lot,” Maeng Juu-seok, a businessman in Seoul, told The Independent. “All the corruption scandals of the Moon government were forgotten. They made the best of the virus.”

One bright spot for the conservatives was the apparent election of Thae Yong-ho, who defected from his post as North Korea’s number two diplomat in its embassy in London in 2016. Thae, who got out with his wife and two sons, ran for the assembly in Seoul’s conservative upscale Gangnam district, made famous by the global hit, “Gangnam Style”, by the Korean singer-songwriter Psy.

Many voters appeared eager to support the government in a show of national enthusiasm for the strength of its counter-virus measures, undertaken after Moon earlier this year had not seemed to recognise the danger of the virus spreading to Korea after it broke out in China. His initial hesitation, including his decision to donate much needed face masks to China that were later in short supply in Korea, by now seems largely overlooked if not forgotten.

The primary concern, aside from Covid-19, is the economy, which the International Monetary Fund predicts will retract by 1.2 per cent this year as a result of depleted export markets in countries afflicted by the virus. Conservatives criticise Moon for a number of measures, including a minimum and a 52-hour work week, which they say has hurt the economy, notably small and medium size enterprises that cannot afford to raise wages while lowering hours.

Conservatives still accuse Moon of toadying both to China and to North Korea, but those issues were secondary. Voters did not seem concerned by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordering yet another in a series of tests of short-range missiles on Tuesday, the eve of the 108th anniversary of the birth of his revered grandfather, Kim Il-sung.

In fact, North Korea is believed to have suffered worse than South Korea from the coronavirus though it has yet to acknowledge a single case of the disease, much less any deaths.

In South Korea, the virus also brought an end to anti-government demonstrations, some of which drew several hundred thousand people waving Korean and American flags to show their support of the US-Korean alliance. The government two months ago banned such protests as a menace to public health after it had become clear the infection is easily spread among crowds standing close together.

In any case, many of the flag-wavers were elderly military veterans who preferred to stay home for fear of catching the disease.

Korea’s success in combating the virus relies on frequent testing that has confirmed 10,591 cases. So far 225 Koreans have died, far fewer than the 12,000-plus deaths recorded in the UK and 26,000-plus in the US. In fact, authorities blame more than half the latest cases on arrivals from overseas, notably New York, the epicentre of the outbreak in the US.

By holding the election in the face of demands to call it off, the government appealed to the can-do spirit of a people who take pride in Korea’s industrial and economic success since the Korean War.

The battle against Covid-19 “created conditions where people were rallying around the government”, said Song Sye-ryan, a law professor, talking on Arirang TV, a government network. So doing, he said, Korea has “set a good example for others to follow”.

“Korea has led the way,” said Emanuel Pastreich, president of The Asia Institute, giving other countries “a torch, a flame and inspiration”.