The National Election Commission convened a meeting of all its members on October 6 to finalize a proposal for amendments to the political laws urgently required to ensure transparency and fairness in the system of publication ceremony and election management. They agreed to submit the proposal to the National Assembly before long.

To deal with situations where publication ceremonies hosted by politicians actually serve as a means to raise funds in an expedient way, the NEC made a proposal for banning any form of fundraising activities for any purpose at publication ceremonies hosted by National Assembly members, local council members, heads of local governments, and those seeking to run for public official elections (hereinafter referred to as National Assembly members and others), except where the relevant publishing company sells books at a fixed value. The NEC also made a proposal for punishing any involvement in giving and taking monetary gifts other than selling and purchasing books at a fixed price.

In addition, a proposal was made for requiring National Assembly members and others to inform the election commission of the date, place, name of publishing company, etc. no later than 2 days before the date of publication ceremony. In case of any violation, the relevant person shall be fined.

The NEC aims to guarantee the freedom of assembly or publication and normal commercial activities while banning any expedient fundraising activities other than ones specified in the Political Funds Act, by permitting the selling of books at a fixed value as well as the holding of publication ceremonies.

Meanwhile, there was a proposal for a political fundraising association hosting a publication ceremony where fundraising is permissible up to an annual ceiling in accordance with the Political Funds Act, which was not accepted.  

Other proposals made by NEC for amendments to the political laws are as follows:

(To ensure effectiveness of reimbursement of election expenses)

To ensure effectiveness of reimbursement of election expenses to a person whose election has been annulled, if anyone is convicted of an electoral offence that invalidates his/her election, reimbursement of election expenses to him/her shall be suspended until there is a disposition not to institute a public action against him/her or he/she is found not guilty. In the case the person whose election has been annulled does not return the reimbursed deposit and election expenses, his/her personal details shall be made public.

(Relaxation of requirement for revocation of political party registration)

With the Constitutional Court’s decision reflected in the proposal that existing provisions infringe on the freedom of forming a political party, the registration of a political party shall be revoked if it does not win any seat or gain more than 2/100 of the valid votes in two consecutive National Assembly elections held at the end of the term.

(To reject receiving text messages)

To ease voters’ inconvenience caused by text messages indiscreetly sent out for the purpose of election campaigns, anyone may make a request to reject receiving such text messages through the NEC website and text messages for election campaign shall not be sent to the phone numbers that reject receiving them. 

(To obligate the submission of braille campaign booklets)

To guarantee vision impaired voters’ right to know, political parties and candidates shall submit braille campaign booklets or add a barcode to campaign booklets that provides voice support once scanned.

(To increase voters’ participation in election and clarify effectiveness of voting) 

General voters other than party/candidate agents may also observe vote counting once they submit an application to the election commission. To add more clarity to effectiveness of voting, there shall be blank space between each candidate’s sections on ballot papers.

(To increase voting convenience for overseas Koreans)

Overseas absentee report or overseas voter registration shall be made available on the Internet and the provision shall be removed that requires the submission of documents to confirm one’s nationality such as a copy of a passport, etc. upon registration.

Furthermore, a proposal shall be submitted to the National Assembly to complement some of the proposals made last year for increasing voting convenience for overseas Koreans, including the introduction of a permanent overseas voters list, set-up of extra overseas polling stations, limited introduction of a postal vote, etc.

Meanwhile, the NEC expressed its determination to further discuss reasonable ways to improve the overall political funds system, considering the political reality, such as by expanding legal fundraising methods, diversifying sources of political funds and fundraising methods, etc.