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The National Election Commission has decided to give Korean expatriates the opportunity to vote in general and presidential elections beginning 2012.
The NEC on Wednesday submitted suggestions for the revision of election laws to the National Assembly. Under the plans, Korean nationals temporarily staying overseas and those with permanent residence in foreign countries will be eligible to vote in general and presidential elections or national referendums. Those with foreign citizenship are not eligible.
Of the 160 countries with Korean diplomatic missions, 101 missions in countries with more than 500 Koreans will set up polling booths, and the other 59 will conduct votes by mail.
Meanwhile, foreigners married to Koreans will be granted the right to vote in local elections, a privilege already available to foreign nationals with permanent residence in Korea since 2006, but not in general or presidential elections.
The Constitutional Court in June last year ruled that denying such rights to Koreans residing overseas is unconstitutional. The law must therefore be revised by the end of this year, and politicians will soon hold talks about the NEC suggestions and each party's revision bill in a parliamentary ad hoc committee.
An NEC official said there are some 3 million Korean expatriates, about 80 percent or 2.4 million adults with voting rights. If only about half of them take part in voting, they can be an important variable in neck-and-neck races.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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