현행 공직선거법상 선거운동의 자유 제한 문제와 그 개선 방안

Abstract

According to the ideology of a representative democracy, the Constitution emphasizes and firmly guarantees the free political participation of the sovereign people. However, the current Public Official Election Act significantly limits the free political participation of the people, including the election campaign, in the actual public office election process. In particular, there is a problem that many of the election-related articles stipulated in the current Public Official Election Act were made under the premonition that such injustice would naturally occur on the premise of unfairness in the election process. This restricts and prevents the circulation and sharing of various information, the presentation of opinions, discussion, and communication during the election process, and it is also in conflict with the grand principles of free and fair elections pursued by our Constitution. In addition to the freedom of election, fairness of elections should be sufficiently guaranteed, but regulations for fairness of elections should never act as a means of suppressing and restricting freedom of election. Therefore, it is necessary to find a reasonable balance between freedom of election and fairness. To this end, it is necessary to re-establish the concept of fairness in elections, especially the fairness of election campaigns, and the target of their application. direction needs to be drastically revised. In other words, regulations on election campaigns should be made to the minimum necessary within the scope that does not unreasonably infringe on the accuracy and free delivery of information, the possibility of easy acquisition, and the equality of opportunities for provision. The scope and scope should be specifically and clearly defined, not as comprehensive subjects and actions as in the present. In addition, it is necessary to abolish or significantly expand the restrictions on the election campaign period, while also expanding the recognition of the election campaigns of candidates running for elections. It needs to be reorganized in the direction of transparent management.