= It is illegal for the party representative and party committee to decide which candidates to recommend and the order on the party list =

The National Election Commission (NEC) of the Republic of Korea held a plenary meeting on February 6 in order to prepare the criteria to make a judgment in accordance with the recently revised Public Official Election Act, which stipulates in Article 47-2 (1) (Recommendation of Candidates by Political Parties) that “When any political party intends to recommend candidates for elections for proportional representation members of the National Assembly,  it shall do so through a democratic screening process, with the candidates being selected for recommendation and a democratic voting process by an electoral college consisting of party representatives and members.”

After in-depth discussions, the NEC decided as follows:

1. Regarding the Democratic Screening Process

A ‘democratic screening process’ refers to the party constitution or party regulations  stipulating the main bodies, methods and procedures for judging candidates and these main bodies, methods and procedures should not be unfair or violate the regulations stipulated in the Constitution of the Republic of Korea or the Public Official Election Act in terms of the principles of democracy. 

2. Regarding the Composition of the Electoral College

The ‘composition of an electoral college’ refers to how the electoral college is configured, including who can be on it, method of selecting the composition and its size defined under the party constitution or party regulations. In addition it should be composed in a way that shall be representative of the party delegates and party members.

▣ Decisions based on ‘strategic nominations’ will be deemed unlawful.  

A party representative or the party committee deciding and nominating candidates and the order on the proportional representation candidate list based solely on election strategy and without the democratic screening process and through a voting process of an electoral college (so-called ‘strategic nominations’) is in violation of the law. 

3. Regarding the Democratic Voting Process

The "democratic voting process" refers to the voting methods and procedures stipulated in the party constitution and it should allow the electoral college to decide the candidates through a vote and abide by general principles of elections such as the principles of equal, direct and secret ballots. 

4. The recommendation of candidates for elections for proportional representation National Assembly members can be seen as legitimate when it meets all requirements regarding the democratic screening process, an electoral college composed of party representatives and members and a democratic voting process.

The NEC plans to support political parties by providing them with information on this decision so that they can accordingly revise their party constitution and party regulations as well as other internal conventions and prepare procedures for recommending candidates for elections for proportional representation members of the National Assembly. Furthermore, further inquiries or possible issues will be discussed and decided upon at a later date.

In addition the NEC announced that if a political party fails to submit documents when registering candidates with the NEC, such as minutes of party meetings or the party constitution and regulations that prove how they recommended the party''s proportional representation National Assembly member candidates according to a democratic process, the registrations will not be accepted. Also if the party violates internal conventions that set the recommendation procedure, it will strictly screen all candidate registrations made by the party in question by nullifying them according to the law. ​