The Election Headquarters (EH) invalidated the by-election of the College of Natural Science (CNS) due to the disqualification. The student council of CNS announced that they will re-start the by-election in 20 days with the new Election Commission (EC). 

On March 24th, according to Central Election Commission (CEC), EH of the only candidate “ForNU” of by-election of CNS was disqualified, due to infringement of Election bylaws and wrong candidate registration. Then, the disqualification finally revealed that the EC did not fulfill its role well. 

From March 22nd to 24th, “ForNU” almost reached 50% of base turnout, and it was only waiting for the ballot count. However, on the day of ballot counting, the report was received that “ForNU” continued campaigning during the voting period. Following the rule, the election campaign period is until before the voting day. 

“ForNU” EH did not remove the promotion materials before the day of election, and in the second day of the election, it was found that it encouraged voting in a group chat room. An anonymous member of CNS said, “I decided that the behavior of EH was wrong. So, I reported it.” 

The CEC considered those acts of the election campaign, following Article 4, Paragraph of Bylaws of the Vice-Governing Body, “EC at each level handle and supervise the affairs related to the election of the student council president,” the case was entrusted to the EC of CNS. 

The EC of CNS decided to issue a warning and caution about this situation. EH’s dispersal will only be carried out if it gets more than three warnings. However, in the end, the “performance of executive officer’s duties” was revealed, so the strict disciplinary action of disqualification was given.  

For the executive committee members to run for election, they must resign before the first rule meeting of the by-election. However, it was revealed that the government and vice candidates of “ForNU,” who were the non-chairpersons of the Natural University, had resigned from their posts and had been working as an executive committee member helping the temporary presidents.

The “ForNU” election filed an objection to the National Election Commission's decision and submitted an objection to the CEC’s decision. Still, the CEC announced on the 25th that the by-election was invalid. The CEC judged that the “ForNU” election did not typically obtain the right to be elected, and at the same time acknowledged the responsibility of the CEC for failing to stop the violation of the election rules. In addition, it seems that it had a significant impact on the establishment of the election by failing to fulfill its role and duty as the EC.

Kang Gun-Wook (President, CEC) said, “As the manager, I feel responsible for this situation. I will try my best to create a fair and transparent society by reorganizing related matters so that this does not happen again.”

Reporter Kim Ye-Shin

Translated by Yun Chae-Eun