The Ministry of the Interior and Safety announced on the 6th that it will operate a situation room ahead of the nationwide simultaneous Saemaul Geumgo chairman elections on March 5.
This election is the first time since the establishment of Saemaul Geumgo in 1973 that chairmen will be elected simultaneously across the nation. Out of a total of 1,282 branch offices, 1,122 are eligible, excluding 160 new, merged, and workplace branches.
The election situation room consists of six members, including one head from the Saemaul Geumgo supervision team, three fifth-grade officers from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, and one representative each from the Financial Supervisory Service and Korea Deposit Insurance Corporation. They will be divided into monitoring and support teams and work at the central hub of the ministry.
The monitoring team manages the overall election situation, checks branches involved in irregularities or complaints, and coordinates with relevant organizations like the election commission and local governments. The support team reports election situations daily and weekly to the situation room head (supervision team leader) and handles election-related inquiries and media responses.
The nationwide simultaneous Saemaul Geumgo chairman election starts accepting pre-candidate registrations on the 21st of this month. The election will be announced on Feb. 13, candidates can apply on Feb. 18-19, and election campaigning will begin from Feb. 20.