Groundless election rumors

Groundless rumors over changes in polling stations for Wednesday’s general elections are being spread through the Internet and social networking sites. A few of the rumors claim that the National Election Commission changed the locations of many polling stations in the ruling Saenuri Party’s favor, that most of the changes were made in areas that favor opposition parties, or that most of the polling stations are at senior citizen centers. All of these rumors are false. The election watchdog and law enforcement agencies should go after who is spreading such unfounded rumors.

Changes in polling station locations are common in an election mostly because of changes in management jurisdictions for polling stations, complaints about their locations, or failure to rent previous stations again. For the upcoming elections, 1,232 polling stations, or 9.1 percent of the country`s total, have been relocated. In the 2010 local elections, in which opposition parties won a landslide victory, 22.5 percent of the polling stations were relocated. This alone shows how outrageous the claim is that relocation of polling stations favors the ruling party.

Also untrue is the arguments that polling stations were relocated to places familiar to senior citizens, who generally favor the ruling party, or that areas where the opposition parties greater support showed a high rate of polling station relocations. Just 12.3 percent of the stations are located at senior citizens’ facilities. When the election watchdog relocates polling stations for inevitable reasons, it selects new locations after consulting with each party. So how can the watchdog change the locations of polling stations to favor a particular party?

In Korea, groundless rumors can spread unchecked at the speed of light via the Internet. They often sound provocative and plausible, and this is why they are dangerous. In 2008, absurd rumors that those who eat American beef would catch mad cow disease and die shook the entire country for several months.

Groundless rumors over polling station relocations were made out of an impure intent to affect the election outcome. Election information materials delivered to each household clearly shows the location of a neighborhood polling station. Voting is the right and duty of citizens living in a democratic country. The people must also prevent such groundless rumors from taking root in society.