The Election Commission Submits Opinion on Revising Political Relations Act to Lower Party Membership Age to 16

On the 6th, one day before the Seoul mayoral by-election, election commission officials and ballot counters are conducting the final mock test of the ballot sorting machine at the Gyena Multi-purpose Gymnasium on Sinjeong-ro, Yangcheon-gu, Seoul, where the counting center has been set up. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Cheol-eung] The National Election Commission announced on the 25th that it has submitted to the National Assembly a proposal to amend the Political Relations Act to expand the freedom of election campaigning.

The current Political Relations Act, despite improvements in election culture and the enhancement of the public's political awareness, still regulates election campaigning in detail, which has been criticized for excessively restricting voters' freedom of political expression.

The amendment proposes to expand the campaign period and methods for preliminary candidates, abolish restrictions on the number of newspaper advertisements, broadcast advertisements, and broadcast speeches, thereby easing the legal campaign restrictions on candidates. It also suggests allowing mock voting for educational purposes targeting youth without voting rights, and permitting the publication and reporting of results from intra-party primaries and candidate unification opinion polls.

Furthermore, to practically guarantee voters' suffrage rights, it proposes enabling absentee voting for individuals under self-isolation or facility quarantine during emergencies such as infectious disease outbreaks, and allowing activity assistants to assist visually or physically disabled voters in voting.

The amendment regulates the output and usage time of loudspeakers used for speeches and dialogues in public places, and establishes grounds for disclosing personal information of those who fail to return election deposit refunds due to election invalidation to assist voters' judgment. The property declaration details of elected officials are to be disclosed until the statute of limitations expires.

It also lowers the eligible age for party membership to 16, permits the establishment of district, city, and county party branches on the premise of preventing party leader factionalism, resolving high costs, and ensuring accounting transparency, thereby enabling citizens to participate in political opinion formation through political parties.

The current system of prioritizing subsidies to parties forming negotiation groups will be abolished to distribute funds rationally in accordance with voters' support intentions. Fundraising through online sponsorship services will be allowed, with income and expenditure details disclosed online at all times to ensure transparency.

The National Election Commission also submitted a proposal to amend the Public Official Election Act in April to expand political expression using facilities, printed materials, and props. With the presidential and local elections scheduled for next year, it expressed hope that political consensus will be reached along with the submitted amendment proposals to rationally improve the election system.

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