Seoul court rejects injunctions filed to stop Olympic committee chief election

A Seoul court on Monday dismissed injunctions filed to halt the election for head of the national Olympic Committee, allowing the voting to proceed as scheduled this week.

The Seoul Eastern District Court rejected the injunctions filed last Wednesday to put brakes on the Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) president election, which will be held Tuesday. A group of 11 voters, led by Korea Ice Hockey Association President Lee Ho-jin, first applied for the injunction, followed hours later by Dankook University professor emeritus Kang Shin-wook, one of six candidates in the race.

In Tuesday’s election, Kang is up against, among others, incumbent chief Lee Kee-heung, who is pursuing his third term, and Ryu Seung-min, the 2004 Olympic men’s table tennis champion and a former member of the International Olympic Committee.

Other candidates are: Kang Tae-sun, head of the Seoul Sports Council and chairman of the sports apparel company Black Yak; Kim Yong-ju, former secretary general of the Gangwon Sports Council; and Oh Ju-young, former president of the Korea Sepaktakraw Association.

In their filing last week, Lee and his 10 fellow voters complained that voters’ rights were violated due to procedural problems.

They said the 150 minutes set aside for voting at Olympic Park in southeastern Seoul were not nearly long enough. They also claimed voters living outside the capital city may have difficulty arriving at the polling station on time, adding that putting such voters at a disadvantage was inherently unfair.

However, the court said the 150 minutes should still be plenty for voters and there are precedents for a relatively small window of voting hours.

“Even if the voting exceeds the allocated amount of time, voters waiting in line to cast their ballots will be permitted to do so,” the court added. “Therefore, it’s difficult to view the situation as infringing on voters’ rights.”

The court also said Olympic Park is easily accessible for the majority of the voters, and sticking to offline voting without making online voting also available does not constitute any violation of voters’ rights.

Kang Shin-wook, too, raised issues with the voting hours and the location of the election. Kang also pointed out that the KSOC did not contact athletes, coaches and referees among prospective voters for their consent to the use of personal information for the selection of the 2,244-person electoral college.

According to Kang, the KSOC gathered information from its database that had not been updated, and this led to the inclusion of some people who no longer work in sports, athletes who are currently serving in the military and even people who have died.

However, the Seoul court said representatives from both the sports ministry and the National Election Commission, which is overseeing the entire process, were involved in the process of selecting voters.

“It can be verified that people who could ensure impartiality of the process were on hand,” the court said.

In response to the court’s ruling, Lee rejected speculation that he had filed for the injunction in support of any particular candidate.

“I’d like to apologize to the voters for causing inconvenience,” Lee said.

Kang said he respected the court’s decision and added, “I hope the election will be run fairly.”

Minutes after the court handed down the decision, the KSOC released a statement announcing the election will take place as scheduled.

The KSOC said observers from the local election watchdog in the district of Songpa, where Olympic Park is located, will be on hand for the voting and ballot counting.

“We will do our best to ensure a fair and transparent election,” the KSOC added.