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SIFE 2024

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The National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea held the Seoul International Forum on Elections (SIFE) 2024 on April 8, 2024. The SIFE is an annual event that has been held by the NEC since 2015 to contribute to the development of election systems and democracy around the world through presentations and active discussions with invited experts in the field of elections and democracy.

 

As this year marked the 10th anniversary of the Forum, it discussed elections with the overall theme of "Crisis and Challenges in Modern Democracy: Paving the New Way in the Era of Rapid Changes" withe total of 3 sessions. Unlike last year, this year held the event in-person in Seoul.

 

Titles of the three sessions were as follows:

 

- Session 1: “Politics of Conflicts: Cause and Solution of Political Polarization”

- Session 2: “AI and Elections, A Double-Edged Sword: Power of AI-Utilizing Election Management”

- Session 3: “AI and Elections, A Double-Edged Sword: Risk of Elections Using AI and countermeasures”

 

The opening ceremony of the event was commenced by Chairperson Rho Tae-ak of the NEC with his opening remarks, followed by congratulatory remarks by Ambassador Ambassador Peter van der Vliet (Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Republic of Korea) and Dagmar Schmidt Tartagli (Embassy of Switzerland in the Republic of Korea). The event was joined by domestic and international election officials, international election observers, and officials from embassies located in the Republic of Korea.

 

SIFE 2024 was one of the most successful events since its initiation, and with the 22nd National Assembly Elections held on April 10, 2024, international election observers stayed for the IEOP (International Election Observation Program) for the 22nd National Assembly Elections as ODA recipients from April 4 to April 12. The observers participated in activities hosted by the NEC such as observation of voting/counting and knowledge exchange and attended SIFE 2024 on Monday, April 8.

 

 

Around 120 guests participated in this year's forum in which they profoundly discussed the general theme of "Crisis and Challenges in Modern Democracy: Paving the New Way in the Era of Rapid Changes," with the theme of the first session, Politics of Conflucts: Cause and Solution of Political Polarization" and the second/third session, "AI and Elections, A Double-Edged Sword."

 

 

The first session (morning session) discussed political polarization and ways to recover trust in elections, which are the most serious issues that is causing a threat against democracy. The afternoon session was composed of two different sessions, in which participants freely talked about how to harness artificial intelligence in the field of election management to improve accuracy and efficiency in the second session and risks of elections using artificial intelligence and how to find counermeasures in the third session.