Supreme Court: Participation of Proportional Satellite Parties in General Election Is Not Illegal

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that the participation of 'satellite parties' launched by the two major parties to secure proportional representation seats in the National Assembly election is not illegal.

On the 19th, the Supreme Court's First Division (Presiding Justice No Taeak) dismissed the plaintiff's claim in the election invalidation lawsuit filed by Lee Gukyoung, Honorary Professor at Sungkyunkwan University, against the National Election Commission, stating that "there was no violation of election regulations."

The proportional satellite parties emerged during last year's general election, which was conducted under a semi-proportional representation system. It is a variation of the mixed-member proportional representation system, where out of the 47 proportional representation seats excluding constituency seats, only 30 seats are allocated based on the vote share.

The system was introduced to reduce wasted votes and lower the entry barriers for minor parties, but there was a loophole where if a party's constituency seats were insufficient compared to its vote share, proportional representation seats would be allocated. This was the background for the Democratic Party of Korea and the United Future Party (now People Power Party) to create satellite parties, which did not run proportional representation candidates but only produced proportional representation winners as a second party.

In response, Professor Lee filed a lawsuit immediately after last year's general election, claiming that the National Assembly election involving proportional satellite parties was invalid. The core argument was that the National Election Commission's approval of the registration of the unconstitutional proportional satellite parties, the Democratic Citizens' Party and the Future Korea Party, was unconstitutional and illegal. He also argued that the two major parties' failure to participate in the proportional representation election did not meet the requirements of a political party, rendering the entire election invalid, including the constituency elections where the two parties fielded candidates.

However, the Supreme Court panel ruled that "the Election Commission must accept the registration application if a party meets the registration requirements stipulated in the Political Parties Act, and cannot refuse registration based on the party's purpose, organization, activities, or political nature," thus finding no fault with the Election Commission. Furthermore, regarding the Democratic Party of Korea and the United Future Party not nominating candidates in this election, the court stated, "It is difficult to see any violation of election-related regulations in the fact that each party did not nominate candidates for the constituency National Assembly election."

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