Unconstitutional National Constituency Vote System

The Constitutional Court decided the current proportional representation system unconstitutional by the electoral law. In addition, the Court judged `one person, one vote` system as `unconstitutional when it is applied to the proportional representation system.`

The Constitutional Court also decided the 20 million won deposit, which is not refundable if the candidate did not collect up to 5 percent of the valid votes, when filing the candidacy for the National Assembly as unconstitutional.

Therefore, to maintain the proportional representative system for the congressional election, the current `one person, one vote` system has to be amended for the voters to choose a supporting party and a person separately. The congressional election deposit system is expected to be amended.

After reviewing the constitutional appeal by the Democratic Labor Party and Rep. Yu Jae-Gun of the New Millennium Democratic Party, complaining that the articles related to the proportional representative system violate the principles of the democracy and the direct election, the whole court (chief judge Kim Hyo-Jong) unanimously agreed that section 189, the distribution method of the proportional representatives, is unconstitutional and the section 146-2, `one person, one vote,` is unconstitutional with a condition.

The Court judged that ``the current `one person, one vote` system, which does not distinguish the candidates and the parties but distributes the proportional representatives to the parties by the rate of the candidates` vote collection, may deprive half of the voters` right of choice.``

The Court also stated, ``when the voters vote for the independent candidates, their votes are excluded from the selections of the proportional representatives, eventually disvaluing their votes. That violates the principle of the equal election.``

Regarding the deposit regulation (section 56), ``the deposit should be decided at a minimum amount to prevent the insincere candidacy and must not limit the eligibility for election of the people. 20 million won deposit for the candidacy is not affordable for everyone and the condition for the refund is too restrictive so that the article blocks the candidacy of the potential candidates,`` the Court remarked.

As a result of the Constitutional Court decision, the related articles of the election law became invalid, including the section 189, the method of the distribution of the proportional representatives, and section 56-1,2, and section 57-1,2, regulating the deposit for the candidacy.

Section 146-2, which is judged as unconstitutional with condition, has to be amended to `one person, two vote` system to carry out the proportional representative system.

sooh@donga.com