The Influence of the Party Nomination and the National Politics on the 2010 Local Election

Misleading Ballot Positions and Invalid Votes

“…In particular, they are most relevant to the scholarly debate on the desirability of nonpartisan elections for local offices, especially for the municipal legislative election, which became partisan in 2006, and the superintendent of education election, which is currently the only nonpartisan election in South Korea. Proponents of nonpartisan local elections claim that party nomination would lead to a nationalization of local politics (Hwang 2010a; Joo 2007; Kim, Kim and Huh 2019; Moon, Kim and Seo 2017), increase corruption (An 2014), and make regionalism worse (Ha 2006; Shin 2006). By contrast, some scholars argue that political parties can help voters hold local politicians accountable (Lee and Park 2010; Yu 2014), increase candidate quality (Lee 2015), provide voters with information (Hwang 2010b), and increase the representation of minorities (Hwang 2007).…”