Revision of the Resident Referendum Act Passed in the National Assembly Plenary Session... Lowering the Resident Referendum Age to 18 Years Old

Counting Possible Regardless of Number of Votes Cast

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jun-yi] From now on, even those aged 18 will be able to participate in local referendums.

On the 5th, the National Assembly held a plenary session and passed a partial amendment to the Local Referendum Act, lowering the voting age for local referendums from 19 to 18 to align with the age criteria in various election-related laws such as the Public Official Election Act.

The Local Referendum Act is a law designed to guarantee direct participation of residents in major decisions of local governments.

The amendment removed the provision that required at least one-third of all eligible voters to participate in a local referendum for the votes to be counted.

Therefore, in all local referendums, votes will be counted regardless of the number of voters, allowing the will of the residents to be confirmed.

The conditions for confirming the voting results were also relaxed from "at least one-third of all eligible voters participating and a majority of valid votes" to "at least one-quarter of all eligible voters participating and a majority of valid votes."

Additionally, a basis for requesting local referendums via electronic signatures was newly established, enabling residents to participate remotely.

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