Page 24 - Election Fraud in Korea-ENG-KOR
P. 24
Obviously, the first test case concerning the allegation of large-scale election fraud was not
properly handled by the public sector in Korea. It seems that more than half of Koreans lost
trust in public election management system in Korea. It is no wonder that starting with the
21st General Election on April 15, 2020, the 20th Presidential Election on March 9, 2022, the
National Simultaneous Local Elections on June 1, 2022, the Gangseo district mayor's By-
election on October 11, 2023, and the 22nd General Election on April 10, 2024, allegations of
large-scale fraud have been steadily raised in various elections. Democracy in Korea is now
in peril. One needs to analyze this situation in a broader and historical perspective.
II. Analysis: On-going War between Honesty and Digital Fascism
Everyone becomes honest when he or she thinks or talks about a relationship with his or
her own family members. This means that happiness in the family is based on the value of
honesty. Honesty should also be the essential value for the state-citizen relationship. When
people are knowingly deceived by their own government, they can never feel happiness from
that governance and citizenship. Sadly enough, honesty is the value fading away in many parts
of the world in this digital and mass media era.
What is happening in Korea in recent years goes beyond the level of a simple political
struggle between conservative and progressive. It is foreshadowing the era of organized
deception by a cartel of interest/ideology-sharing power groups inside and outside of the
nation. This era might eventually lead us to the so-called 'digital fascism'.
Fascism, which appeared in the 1920s and 40s, attempted to realize the complete
solidarity and integration of the ruling class. The guiding ideology and fascist leaders were
subject to enthusiastic worship, and criticism of this was unacceptable and dangerous. The
system established by mankind to fundamentally suppress fascism, which served as a key
factor in the outbreak of World War II, is a democratic procedure. The essence of a democratic
system, whether liberal or social democracy, lies not in its "ideology", but in its "process". The
principles and institutions established by the national community gain legitimacy through the
domination of the democratic majority, and in order to do so, the principle of respect for the
minority must be observed.
The question of fairness of the electoral system has suddenly been at the forefront of the
very modern society of Korea in the last four years. This topic has also been raised at least in
several other countries including the United States. Similar cases keep happening in many
countries on the path of China’s Belt and Road initiative in which China is developing roads
and ports in dozens of countries while building markets for Chinese exports. These countries
include Turkey (2015), Iraq (2018), Iran (2009), Kyrgyzstan (2009), Kenya (2018) and DR
Congo (2018).
The democratic governance of rule by majority can only be justified if the arguments of
minorities claiming fraudulent elections should be sufficiently and promptly verified or
disproven. Fair and honest examination of election fraud claims is the core of the principle of
democracy. The South Korean government, the National Assembly and the courts have been
thoroughly ignoring, for more than two years, people's ongoing protests and more than 200
formal lawsuits against the fraudulent general election of April 15 2020 and then they have
covered up those cases with an unscrutinized judicial verdict. They have proven themselves
useless in democratic procedures.
Four years ago in Korea, the most commonsensical requests to examine charges of
election fraud were blocked from mainstream information channels and framed as conspiracy
theories and were quickly killed in the media market. It is no more secret that the then leftists’
government of Korea has strong political inclination toward Chinese totalitarian leadership
and North Korean dictatorship. The ruling party was trying to amend the constitution by
abandoning the principle of free democracy that has been the constitutional foundation of the
miracle of Han-River. Many pieces of evidence of election fraud were not heard or investigated
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