SEOUL, KOREA - The Constitutional Court ruled that the current law on the population size of voting districts is in violation of the constitution and recommended the population disparity between the largest and the smallest constituency, a ratio of almost 3 to 1 be reduced to 2 to 1 or less. The Constitutional Court justices gave a verdict on October 30 to a lawsuit raised by six plaintiffs from a populous district in Seoul claiming that they were underrepresented in the National Assembly.
Current laws require a voting district to have at least 100,000 residents to hold a seat in the National Assembly. Each lawmaker is allowed to represent a maximum of 300,000 residents.
The plaintiffs argued that the number of the least-populated district of Yeongcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, is only a third of the Gangnam A Voting District even though the two send the same number of lawmakers to the legislature. Congressman Chung Woo-taek (New Frontier Party) also raised a separate suit with the Constitutional Court for the same cause, for which the justices merged with similar cases.
The justices said in a statement, "According to the current laws, it may happen that a candidate who lost in a larger district may have collected more votes than a winner in a smaller district. This is in no way in line with the principles of representative democracy."
Article provided by The Korea Economic Daily
The latest decision will affect the outcome of the elections to be held on April 13, 2016 by adjusting electoral districts. As a general rule, urban districts will gain more representatives while rural ones are likely to lose out from the change.
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