Constitutional Court Upholds '60-Day Registration Period for Military Mayor Preliminary Candidates' as Constitutional

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Constitutional Court has ruled that the provision in the Public Official Election Act limiting the period for registering as a preliminary candidate for county governor elections to 60 days before the election date does not violate the Constitution.

On the 6th, the Constitutional Court announced that it made a unanimous decision by all justices to uphold the constitutionality of the Public Official Election Act, which restricts the registration period for preliminary candidates in county governor elections, in response to a constitutional complaint filed by Mr. A claiming a violation of fundamental rights.

Mr. A applied to register as a preliminary candidate with the election commission on March 2 of that year to run in the local county governor election scheduled for June 13, 2018. However, his application was rejected on the grounds that it was not within 60 days before the election date, leading him to file a constitutional complaint alleging infringement of his fundamental rights. Article 60-2 of the Public Official Election Act stipulates that those intending to become preliminary candidates for county governor elections may register only from 60 days before the start of the election period.

However, the Constitutional Court judged that "this provision aims to prevent early election overheating and the resulting disorder in the election process, as well as to prevent imbalances due to differences in economic power, thereby ensuring fair elections," and found it difficult to see it as an infringement of fundamental rights.

Regarding the claim that the equality rights of county governor preliminary candidates were violated because the registration period for preliminary candidates in autonomous districts and cities is longer?starting 90 days before the election period?the court also ruled that there is no problem with the longer registration period for autonomous districts and cities, given that their populations are larger than those of counties.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.