800,000 KCTU members start voting for the leadership election
800,000 members of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) will start voting for the 9th leadership election on the 30th of this month. Four candidate teams ran for election of the president, vice president, and secretary general at the same time. Candidates finished their 22- day campaigning on October 29th. This is the second direct election by all union members, following 2014. The number of enrolled members has increased from 670,000 in 2014 to 800,000 this year, reflecting the increase in public and service sector members.
Members may cast their votes in 9,137 polling places or via cellphone, answering machine and email by December 6th.
If no candidate gains 50 percent support in the first round of voting, a run-off election involving the two candidate teams with the most votes will be cast from December 14th to the 20th.
The government arrested current KCTU President Han Sang-gyun in December 2015, and he is still in prison. Many people are urging the government to give him a presidential pardon by Christmas, at the latest.