By Soo-hyang Choi

SEOUL (Reuters.) – Noh Seojin, a political science student at Seoul University, left class Tuesday and headed to a final campaign event. With a yellow campaign jacket in hand, she had ambitions of being the youngest member for Seoul’s city council.

Noh is among seven teens running for office in South Korea’s election on Wednesday. This was the first time since December, when the minimum age of local government leaders and members fell to 25.

Although both major parties want to appeal to the volatile young vote, they are also running teenager candidates. Many of these youth voters hail from smaller parties, such as Noh’s Justice Party. She has been actively involved since she was 15 years old.

Noh stated, “I have a shorter political career than President Yoon Suk–yeol,” highlighting South Korea’s new leader’s inexperience when he first entered politics last June and won his election this month.

Moon Jaein’s predecessor in government was Yoon. They lowered the voting age one year to 18 years. This was expected to bring a lot of support to Yoon’s liberal party. After all, they had been prominent in the protests and vigils which helped to overthrow the scandal-plagued previous administration.

However, the volatile youth vote emerged as a strong swing bloc. Young men chose Yoon’s conservative party to Moon’s Democrats, citing disillusionment with corporate elitism and high housing prices, as well as concerns about employment opportunities and divisions over gender equality.

According to exit polls, Yoon was elected by 58% of the 20-year-old men, and liberal Lee Jaemyung won the same proportion of women. Yoon won the election with a narrow margin of 0.7%.

After their defeat, the Democratic Party named 26-year old Park Ji-hyun its interim leader.

Noh, who wore a suit for her class at Seoul’s Soongsil University classes since she launched her candidacy in 2018, joined the progressive Justice Party, becoming an honorary member. Now, Noh is its head of youth committee.

She has pledged to advocate for teenagers who, she claims, have been underrepresented in policy discussions on education that affect them daily lives.

She pledged to address climate change and ensure school meals are vegetarian.

Park Wonho, Seoul National University’s political science professor, stated that while the candidates for teenage elections were not in good shape to win Wednesday’s races, but they did indicate a rise in young politicians and voters.

He said, “The most important question is whether or not they will have the opportunity to gain experience and move up to the top of politics in this country.”

It is possible that their youth could be welcomed in a country where 55 year olds make up the majority of members of Parliament.

Jung Ji-hoon, a 29-year old Seoul resident, stated that while teens might lack the experience necessary to see the world clearly, they can nevertheless have a very different perspective.

Noh stated that she would vote on election day and attend class remotely before going to the party office for the results.

If she is unable to win a seat on the council,

It will all be business as usual. She said that she would continue her political career in the Justice Party.