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Lippert to observe S. Korea’s parliamentary election process

April 11, 2016
U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert.

U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert.

SEOUL, April 11 (Yonhap) — U.S. Ambassador to Seoul Mark Lippert will observe the voting and ballot counting of South Korea’s upcoming parliamentary elections, the national election watchdog said Monday.

South Koreans go to the polls Wednesday to elect 300 lawmakers for four-year terms, with 253 of them to be selected through direct elections and the remaining 47 proportional representation seats to be allocated to parties according to the number of votes they receive overall.

The National Election Commission (NEC) said it will co-host the 2016 Seoul International Forum on Elections with the South Korea-led Association of World Election Bodies (A-WEB) on Tuesday for a two-day run.

Among the attendees to the forum are Lippert, South Korean National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa, NEC secretary general Kim Yong-hi, the NEC said.

On Tuesday, the attendees will discuss the role of citizens on improving democracy and how to induce more female politicians, the commission said.

The participants will then visit a polling stations in central Seoul the following day to watch the voting and the vote-counting process, officials said.

A-WEB was first proposed by Seoul in 2011 and launched two years later with the participation of more than 102 countries. The organization aims to establish fair elections in developing nations by helping them build the necessary legal framework and infrastructure.