The main opposition Democratic Unified Party is undertaking an important experiment that could reshape the election culture in Korea. It has opened its leadership election process to ordinary citizens and allowed them to vote through their mobile phones.

The party’s unprecedented move is being closely watched by rival parties as well as political analysts as it could also affect the outcomes of the coming parliamentary and presidential elections.

According to the DUP, more than 643,000 citizens have applied to be part of its electoral college, a turnout that surprised party officials who predicted a maximum figure of 250,000 to 300,000.

To get a sense of how large the turnout is, one needs to remember that the total number of voters who participated in the October 2010 leadership election of the Democratic Party was less than 60,000.

The entire electoral college for the DUP’s leadership contest is about 771,000, including the 128,000 rank-and-file party members. Of them, more than 88 percent opted for voting on their cell phones. A five-day mobile vote kicked off on Monday and is to run until Friday.

The electoral college will account for 70 percent the total votes to be cast for the election of the DUP’s leadership, with the party’s 21,000 due-paying delegates taking up the remaining 30 percent. The delegates will vote at the party’s national convention slated for Jan. 15.

Under this arrangement, the outcome of the poll will be determined largely by the citizen electors, as they control more than 58 percent of the total votes. One noteworthy aspect about this situation is that it leaves little room for any attempt to buy votes to get elected.

Vote-buying is a practice deeply entrenched in domestic political parties, regardless of their position on the political spectrum. This has been well illustrated by the ongoing money-for-votes scandal that erupted at the ruling Grand National Party.

The DUP initially denounced the GNP as an irredeemably corrupt party. Yet it also got sucked into the maelstrom as allegations have surfaced that a candidate participating in the ongoing leadership race had provided money to delegates during the preliminary polls held last month, which were not open to ordinary citizens.

The widening bribery scandal has made the DUP’s mobile vote experiment all the more relevant as it has shown that the most effective way to put an end to the die-hard vote-buying tradition is to pump up the electoral college to a level where bribing becomes practically impossible. This job can be achieved most easily and most cheaply by mobile voting.

Another merit of mobile voting is that it enables political parties to accurately reflect public sentiment in electing their leaders. Hence, they are moving to use it in selecting their candidates for the parliamentary and presidential elections. Thus, the convenient voting method is expected to transform the whole election culture in Korea.

In parallel, it will make political parties more democratic and open to citizens. Although the democratization movement of the 1980s made Korea a democratic society, political parties continued to suffer from a democratic deficit. But if party leaders or candidates for public posts are picked with the wide participation of citizens, it will enhance intra-party democracy.

Ultimately, mobile voting is likely to accelerate the transition of party politics to what is called citizen politics by opening the way for massive participation of citizens in political processes. This transition will be also fueled by the penetration of social networking services, which contributes to stimulating young electorate’s interest in politics.

Yet voting on the cell phone is not without its negatives. For instance, it can make a leadership race of a political party a popularity poll, as citizens participating in the vote are likely to choose candidates based on the familiarity of their names rather than a scrutiny of their policies or qualifications.

Mobile voting can also distort the outcome of a poll if a certain political group tells its followers to become members of the electoral college and vote for the candidate of its choice.

These and other adverse effects, however, do not outweigh the merits of mobile voting. Hence, we believe it is the way domestic political parties should go in future. Yet it would be better if they can minimize its negative aspects.