12 student bodies to issue joint declaration over voting rights violations

As rallies calling for a redo of last week’s local elections continued into their fifth day, student leaders from 12 universities across Korea said Tuesday they will issue a joint declaration denouncing ballot shortages that they say deprived citizens of their right to vote.

Student leaders said student bodies from 12 universities — Yonsei, Konkuk, Kyung Hee, Sogang, Korea, Seoul National, Hongik, Sungkyunkwan, Soongsil, Chonnam National, Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and the University of Seoul — will simultaneously hold a joint declaration and protest on their campuses at 6 p.m. on Wednesday.

The timing was chosen to coincide with the anniversary of the June 10 Democratic Uprising of 1987, a key milestone in Korea’s pro-democracy movement against the Chun Doo-hwan military regime, in a bid to frame the current dispute as a struggle over basic political rights.

In their declaration, the participants are expected to demand a thorough investigation into the ballot shortages, which they say undermined the integrity of the democratic system and effectively deprived many citi