Yonsei University's student council presidential election has been invalidated after authorities confirmed election fraud during voter mobilization efforts.
The university's Central Election Management Committee announced Wednesday that the election results were nullified and the winning campaign team was disqualified after evidence emerged that campaign officials coordinated with the General Club Association's election committee chair to boost voter turnout through mass text messaging.
The scheme came to light through a tip from a candidate identified as "A," who was running for president of the College of Commerce and Economics student council. In an email to the Central Election Committee on January 8, A claimed that the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the student council campaign team had summoned them to the General Club Association's election committee office on January 5 to discuss ways to increase voter turnout.
According to A's account, participants discussed specific strategies including plans to send mass scheduled messages via KakaoTalk on Monday morning and the possibility of sending voting reminder texts to all members of the General Club Association. The General Club Association's election committee was confirmed to have sent mass voter mobilization texts the day after the meeting.
The Central Election Committee found the tip credible. "CCTV footage confirmed that A entered the General Club Association's election committee office on January 5, and we verified that other individuals A mentioned were present at the time," a committee official said.
The campaign team had secured victory on January 9 with a 50.57% voter turnout, but the results were subsequently overturned. The Central Election Committee and Central Operations Committee convened on January 10 to discuss potential election fraud and issued a warning to the campaign team on January 11 for "conduct harmful to the election."
The Central Election Committee ultimately ruled that "this case involved the student council campaign team and a unit election committee coordinating role distribution and strategy development with the goal of electing a specific candidate," calling it "a serious act harmful to the election that could undermine the credibility and fairness of the student council election."
