Korea’s most-populous province launches multilingual blitz to get foreign residents to vote

“As Korea prepares for its upcoming local elections on June 3, Gyeonggi Province is launching an ambitious campaign to ensure its growing foreign population isn't left out of the democratic process. In a bid to overcome language barriers and systemic information gaps, the provincial government announced the deployment of voter turnout posters translated into 13 different languages. Under Korea’s Public Official Election Act, certain foreign residents hold the right to vote in local elections. Eligible voters must be at least 18 years old, have held permanent residency for at least three years and be officially registered on their local municipality's foreigner registry. Despite these legal rights, many eligible non-Korean residents sit out of elections due to a lack of accessible information in their native languages. To bridge this gap, Gyeonggi Province’s Department of Immigration and Social Policy designed a highly visual, multilingual informational campaign. In addition to Korean, the promotional materials include languages such as English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Uzbek and Nepali.

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