Guinmo Geochang-gun Mayor, Relay Signing of Joint Petition to Maintain Metropolitan Council Election Districts

Goo In-mo County Governor and Metropolitan Council Member Electoral District Maintenance Joint Petition Non-face-to-face Signing Ceremony.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Choi Soon-kyung] Thirteen local governments nationwide have been conducting an online relay-style signing ceremony since the 15th of last month to adopt a joint petition for improving the method of delineating 'metropolitan councilor electoral districts,' and on the 4th, Gu In-mo, the mayor of Geochang County, also participated in the non-face-to-face signing.

According to Geochang County, the joint petition signing ceremony included participation from 13 heads of local governments, including four counties in Gyeongnam?Geochang, Changnyeong, Haman, and Goseong?as well as Pyeongchang, Jeongseon, and Yeongwol counties in Gangwon Province; Seocheon and Geumsan counties in Chungnam Province; Yeongdong and Okcheon counties in Chungbuk Province; and Seongju and Cheongdo counties in Gyeongbuk Province.

These local government heads argue that the method of delineating electoral districts should be improved to reflect the representativeness of metropolitan councilors who play a supportive role in securing national and provincial project budgets and responding to local pending projects in underdeveloped rural and fishing areas.

In the joint petition, they condemned the Constitutional Court's ruling to strengthen the allowable population deviation standard for metropolitan councilor elections from 4:1 to 3:1, stating that it is a population-based electoral district delineation that does not consider the characteristics of rural and fishing areas.

They further urged that electoral districts reflecting regional representativeness should be delineated by considering non-population factors such as area, and requested the establishment of special provisions for rural and fishing areas under the Public Official Election Act.

Mayor Gu In-mo emphasized, "The role of metropolitan councilors is even more crucial to effectively promote various policies to cope with local extinction, such as the Hometown Love Donation System and designation of population decline areas."

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