Impending Future, Crisis of Regional Depopulation... Nine Metropolitan Assembly Districts at Risk of Being Ruled Unconstitutional

Nine Areas Including Muju and Jangsu in North Jeolla at Risk
Special Committee Seeks Solutions, but Fundamental Limits Remain
Attention on Introduction of Multi-Member Constituencies in Gwangju Metropolitan City

On June 3, the 9th nationwide local elections will be held, and electoral districts for metropolitan and basic local assembly members in areas such as Busan, North Jeolla, and North Gyeongsang provinces are facing the risk of being ruled unconstitutional. While the National Assembly's Special Committee on Political Reform is searching for solutions, it is now necessary to consider fundamental measures in the face of the crisis of regional depopulation.

According to the National Election Commission and the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on April 6, if the June 3 local elections are held under the current electoral system, there are as many as nine metropolitan assembly districts at risk of being deemed unconstitutional. This includes not only areas such as Muju and Jangsu in North Jeolla, Yeongyang and Ulleung in North Gyeongsang, and Uiryeong in South Gyeongsang, but also includes major cities and metropolitan areas such as Jung-gu in Busan, Gunwi-gun in Daegu, Ongjin-gun in Incheon, and Yeoncheon-gun in Gyeonggi Province.

Previously, in October of last year, the Constitutional Court made a decision regarding the permissible population disparity for city and provincial assembly districts. The court found that the Jeollabuk-do Jangsu-gun provincial assembly district fell below the lower population limit for the North Jeolla region, ruling that this violated the constitutional value of 'equality of voting rights based on the principle of proportional representation by population.' According to this standard, basic local governments whose populations fall below -50% of the average value (calculated by dividing the metropolitan population by the number of metropolitan assembly members) cannot have metropolitan assembly members.

Within the Special Committee on Political Reform, there is consideration of using a 20% adjustment range for the number of assembly members. This method involves increasing the number of assembly members to lower the average population per representative. According to the National Election Commission and others, this approach, known as adjustment, could provide a solution for areas like Jung-gu in Busan and Muju-gun in North Jeolla. However, for the remaining seven areas, it would be necessary to merge them with other regions.

A proposal to further increase the adjustment range to 30% and thereby secure more assembly seats is also being discussed by the Special Committee on Political Reform. In addition, measures are being considered to enhance the representativeness of basic local governments through legislative means, as well as holding elections by merging adjacent regions. There is also a proposal to reflect the uniqueness of island areas such as Ulleungdo and Ongjin-gun in legislation.

The problem is that these methods are only temporary. No matter how much seats are increased or regions are merged, such makeshift solutions are limited under the persistent condition of regional depopulation. Legislative approaches to increase the representativeness of basic local governments may also conflict with the Constitutional Court's ruling, raising the possibility of controversy over constitutionality. As a result, there is a growing call for a more fundamental solution.

In this context, on April 2, the five ruling parties—including the Democratic Party, the Rebuilding Korea Party, the Progressive Party, the Basic Income Party, and the Social Democratic Party—announced an agreement to pilot a multi-member constituency system for metropolitan assembly elections in the June 3 local elections, and to raise the current 10% ratio of proportional representation among assembly members. The political community sees the merged Gwangju-South Jeolla Metropolitan City (Gwangju Metropolitan City) as a likely candidate for the pilot constituency. While the merger has been confirmed through the local elections, the method for forming the metropolitan assembly has not yet been determined.

As of January this year, the population of Gwangju Metropolitan City was 1.39 million and South Jeolla was 1.78 million, but the number of metropolitan assembly members is 23 in Gwangju and 61 in South Jeolla. If the merger proceeds as is, the voting power of a Gwangju citizen (one member per 60,000 people) would be less than half that of a South Jeolla citizen (one member per 29,000 people). Applying the Constitutional Court's criteria, multiple cases of unconstitutionality would be unavoidable. In response, Democratic Party lawmaker Lim Mi-ae, Rebuilding Korea Party lawmaker Jeong Chun-saeng, and Progressive Party lawmaker Jeong Hye-kyoung have jointly sponsored a bill to use the current National Assembly constituencies as metropolitan assembly electoral districts, adopting a multi-member system in which 3 to 5 members are elected per district.

The key issue is whether there will be opposition from the People Power Party and local political circles. Since the Special Committee on Political Reform has traditionally amended election laws through inter-party agreement, the focus is on whether a consensus can be reached. Additionally, in some regions, the number of metropolitan assembly members may be reduced, so whether the South Jeolla political community will accept this is also noteworthy. Han Byung-do, floor leader of the Democratic Party, stated, "We will strive to process political reform bills, including amendments to the Public Official Election Act, before the National Assembly plenary session on April 10."

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