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Expatriates will get the vote on local issues under a revision of the election law planned by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security. Some 50,000 to 60,000 people with Korean citizenship but no residence here who have registered with the Korea Immigration Service for more than 30 days of stay stand to benefit.
With the new law, they will be able to vote in local referendums which ask for residents’ opinion on policies such as merging of local autonomous entities and installation of some facilities like radioactive waste dumps.
The decision comes as a follow-up to the Constitutional Court’s ruling in June 2007 that the current public office election law and local referendum law are unconstitutional for failing to give voting rights to expatriates.
The National Assembly is to decide on an amendment of election and voting laws with regard to voting rights in presidential, general and local elections.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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