Regional ballot signers

"I want to vote to stop damn populism. Tell me where and how I can do that.” A Seoul resident who opposes the free school meal program planned by Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education posted this on the Internet. This cannot be found on the homepages of the Seoul city government or district offices. Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said, “I cannot answer it even if you ask me.” Article 11 of the Regional Ballot Act stipulates that civil servants (excluding legislators of the relevant council) cannot be involved in activities that request the signing of a petition. Had Oh said, “You can do it (somewhere),” he would have violated election laws.

When calling Dasan Call Center 120, from which one can find out anything about Seoul, a caller can learn that a civic group is collecting signatures. When typing in the civic group “National Movement,” whose phone number is provided by the call center in the Naver.com search box, the National Movement for Revising the School Meals Act is found. The organization, however, encourages signing for organic free meals. Only after calling the number given by the call center (02-747-0191) can one learn that the civic group will launch a homepage next week and collect signatures when one signs up for the homepage. The name of the group is the National Movement for Expelling Welfare Populism.

To sign a petition against free meals, a person must undergo a complicated process but the civic group said, “Since the start of the petition drive on Feb. 8, 124,500 people have signed up.” More than 30,000 people were delegated the right to collect signatures from citizens. The civic group says it can get signatures from 418,000 people (5 percent of voters in Seoul) required for a regional ballot by early August.

Members of the Seoul City Council who are members of the main opposition Democratic Party have led the effort to introduce free school meals. They recently proposed a revised bill that the issues decided by the council cannot be put to regional vote. It is nonsense that the council, which is the core of grassroots democracy, tries to block regional ballots, a legitimate right of citizens. Council legislators should think what they can really do for the children of low-income households instead of giving free meals to children of rich families.

Editorial Writer Kim Sun-deok (yuri@donga.com)