PM Chung Urges Authorities To Ensure Safe By-election Proceedings
Chung Sye-kyun, South Korea's Prime Minister, urged authorities from health ministries to watch out for the potential new outbreaks of the Coronavirus pandemic to allow safe proceeding for the approaching the 7th of April by-elections.
The citizens from Seoul and Busan - the country's second-largest city in the southeast part of South Korea, will be hitting the voting booths on the 7th of April to choose their new mayors for their respective by-elections. Nineteen other seats will also be open during the elections that are mostly for councils and local governments across the country.
The position for mayor in Seoul has been available since July last year, when the late former mayor Park Won-soon, who is formerly a human rights lawyer that became a politician, was found dead for an apparent suicide after the controversial sexual harassment allegations by his former secretary. The Busan mayoral seat was also available since last April following the resignation of Mayor Oh Keo-don, also because of the allegations of sexual harassment.
Prime Minister Chung also added that the threats of the pandemic's third wave will still continue and that the authorities should do their best to implement virus measures that are focused on the election with a sense of alertness.
Chung reminded the authorities to always strengthen the coronavirus measures, especially during the by-elections and after managing the massive and nationwide election that was conducted last year that received an international commendation for its successful implementation amidst the pandemic.
Moreover, the prime minister also announced the rollout of 500,000 Covid vaccine shots from Pfizer that arrived in Korea for a short while.
Chung has urged people to accept the Covid shots and trust their government despite the concerns that are being linked to the Covid-19 vaccines. Foreigners will also be inoculated by the vaccination program wherein the country targets to achieve herd immunity by the month of November.