As early voting for the 9th nationwide local elections began, it turned out that sailors protecting ships abroad cannot exercise their right to vote.
By law, voting at sea is allowed only for presidential elections, National Assembly elections, and national referendums. Sailors who have been unable to return home due to the prolonged closure of the Strait of Hormuz also cannot vote.
According to the shipping industry on the 1st, of the 28,731 sailors working on Korea-flagged ships registered in the country, about 34.5% (9,922) are ocean-going crew members working in distant foreign waters.
If you add 1,562 sailors serving on heachwiseon (foreign-flagged ships) who usually work overseas, a total of 11,484 work in distant foreign waters. Of these, 88% are merchant ship sailors and 12% are fishing vessel sailors.
Ocean-going merchant ship sailors typically work on board for 4 months followed by 2 months of leave, while on distant-water fishing vessels they operate at sea for as little as half a year and as long as more than 2 years.
Most sailors, except for some who are on leave in Korea, will still be serving on board on election day. The industry estimates that number at more than 7,000.
Because they are citizens of the Republic of Korea, they have the right to vote in the upcoming June 3 local elections, but since exercising that right through voting at sea under the Public Official Election Act is not guaranteed, they cannot do so.
Voting at sea has been in place since the 2012 general election following a constitutional petition by distant-water sailors calling for the guarantee of suffrage. Voting is conducted under the captain's supervision, and the National Election Commission receives it by "sealed fax."
A sealed fax is a device that folds, seals, and prints the ballot so that the marked choices are not visible. The election commission counts these together with absentee ballots, and the captain scans and keeps sailors' ballots for verification.
Technically, the same method could be used to exercise voting rights in all elections, but when the Public Official Election Act was revised in response to the constitutional petition, only presidential elections, National Assembly elections, and national referendums were included for voting at sea, leaving by-elections for National Assembly members and local elections still restricting distant-water sailors' suffrage.
Since 2012, the shipping industry has continuously asked that sailors be allowed to participate in local and by-elections as well. In 2021, Representative Kim Hyeong-dong of the People Power Party proposed an amendment to the Public Official Election Act to that effect, but it was not passed and was discarded.
Industry officials say that with the introduction of low Earth orbit satellite communications such as Starlink, many of the technical limitations that were a hurdle to expanding eligibility for voting at sea have been overcome, and there needs to be continued efforts to guarantee sailors' voting rights.
A shipping industry official said, "It has been 14 years since voting at sea was introduced, but expansion of eligibility has faced difficulties due to low participation stemming from technical issues and the excessive responsibility placed on captains," adding, "Sailors are citizens whose domicile is in the Republic of Korea, and many of the technical issues are being resolved, so it is time to begin full-fledged discussions on expanding eligibility for voting at sea."