The date of the upcoming general elections, to be held on April 10, is seen on the stairs at the National Election Commission's Gwacheon office in Gyeonggi Province, Jan. 1. Yonhap

In the lead-up to the upcoming general elections, which are scheduled for April 10, citizens are expressing frustration over an excessive number of calls and text messages from potential candidates seeking support.

“I receive more than three texts or calls a day and it's annoying. The constant calls make me feel resentful, and I don't want to support any candidate,” said an office worker living in Incheon surnamed Kim.

According to the National Election Commission, 120 days before the general elections, when the registration of preliminary candidates for the district begins, campaigns using phone calls or texts are permitted to appeal to voters for their support or to encourage them to vote in the election.

With the general elections approximately 60 days away, the frequency of support-seeking calls and texts is on the rise.

“I often thought it was a work-related contact when I received a call, but it was usually from a campaign office, even while I was consulting with a customer,” said a real estate agent in Seoul surnamed Ju.

Not only calls from certain election offices of preliminary candidates but also calls from polling organizations, are contributing to pre-election fatigue among members of the public.

It is not illegal for candidates to appeal to voters via phone or text for support or encourage them to vote during the campaign, if certain requirements, such as explaining that citizens have the right to refuse these types of interactions and how to do it, are included.

However, concerns are growing that privacy rights may be infringed upon due to the sheer volume of calls from places unrelated to the voter's area of residence.

Under the Public Official Election Act, organizations conducting polls can ask mobile communication agents for voters' phone numbers for polling purposes.

Those numbers received by institutions are contactable via a proxy number, not the actual number.

Political parties or election offices can also request mobile communication agents to generate virtual numbers by paying a certain amount. This allows them to randomly generate a vast amount of numbers for phone calls or campaign text messages.

Additionally, it is known that election offices collect voters' phone numbers randomly, such as by collecting contact details, for example, phone numbers displayed on parked vehicles.

However, these actions are within the law as the current act doesn't specifically regulate methods of obtaining phone numbers.

Staff members work at the National Election Commission office in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, which was opened in January. Yonhap

Laws to prevent such indiscriminate practices were discussed but faced challenges.

In the 20th National Assembly, Rep. Lee Sang-min of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) proposed an amendment. It aimed to set a minimum standard for collecting personal information and impose fines of up to 50 million won ($37,355) if candidates collected phone numbers without voters' consent. However, the proposal lost momentum due to the expiration of its term without being properly discussed.

A revision bill at the 21st National Assembly to restrict sending text messages from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. was proposed, but discussions have yet to be held.

Lim Jong-in, a professor of cybersecurity and privacy at Korea University, emphasized the difficulty of sanctioning candidates or election offices under the Personal Information Protection Act for contacting voters randomly.

“To punish them under the current law, voters must prove that there was an illegal act in collecting their personal information, but in fact, it is difficult for an individual to prove this,” he said.

Currently, the only way to avoid an excessive number of calls is for individual voters to block them one by one.

Lim highlighted that the National Election Commission needs to take action to address the annoyance the public is experiencing from the barrage of phone calls and texts.

“The National Election Commission must determine the number that constitutes excessive texts or calls and establish a standard to manage institutions or election offices that exceed them before and after the election,” Lim said.