South Korean election officials sort voting papers for ballot counting in the presidential election in Seoul in 2017. ( AFP / JUNG Yeon-Je)

Posts mislead on 'vaccination requirements' for voting in South Korean presidential election

This article is more than one year old.
Published on December 20, 2021 at 06:17
Updated on December 20, 2021 at 06:19
2 min read
By SHIM Kyu-Seok, AFP South Korea

A screenshot of a news report has been shared multiple times on Facebook alongside a claim that proof of Covid-19 vaccination will be required for South Koreans voting in the country's upcoming presidential election in March 2022. The claim, however, is misleading; a spokesperson for South Korea's national election commission told AFP the claim is "baseless", while confirming unvaccinated people will be allowed to vote in the upcoming presidential election. The screenshot shared in the misleading posts was taken from a Korean news report that fact-checked a similar claim circulating online.

The claim was shared here on Facebook on December 12, 2021.

Screenshot of the misleading claim shared on Facebook. Captured December 13, 2021.

The Korean-language claim translates in part as: "[Voting] impossible in a presidential election without a vaccine pass.

"[Surprising] that there is such a strategy. Looking at trends, people who reject vaccines do not trust the government and are likely to support the opposition. In truth, most people who reject vaccines are opposition supporters.

"This not a light matter. The Democratic Party has calculated this. Scary leftist bastards."

The screenshot shared alongside the claim shows a YTN news broadcast with the caption: "Without vaccine passes, [you] cannot vote in the presidential election?"

South Korea is due to hold a presidential election on March 9, 2022. All South Korean citizens above the age of 19 are eligible to cast a vote.

With a steep rise in Covid-19 cases in December 2021, the country widened vaccine passport requirements for a wide range of public facilities, including restaurants and cinemas.

A similar claim has been shared on Facebook here, here, here and here.

The claim, however, is misleading.

A spokesperson from South Korea’s National Election Commission (NEC) told AFP on December 13, 2021 that people who do not have vaccine passports would not be barred from participating in the 2022 presidential election.

"The claim [that unvaccinated people will be barred from voting] is completely baseless," the spokesperson added. "There is no relation between the right to vote and one’s vaccination status."

The YTN news report shown in the screenshot was taken from a broadcast on October 10, 2021 that debunked a similar claim.

The report concluded the claim as "unlikely," noting that there were no vaccination requirements for the by-election on April 7, 2021.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the image shared on Facebook (left) and the original YTN report (right):

Screenshot comparison of the image shared on Facebook (L) and the original YTN report (R)

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