공직선거법 개정 쟁점과 정치적 기본권 -쟁점의 법ㆍ인권교육적 분석 포함-

Abstract

Election is one of the most important systems for a liberal democracy country. The Election Act is the foundation that keeps a liberal democracy country’s structure, as well as a fair set of rules that allows citizens to voice their political views. South Korea’s Public Election Act is the basic law for citizens to elect their representatives for the legislative and executive branch, which is the foundation of division of powers. This election system and Public Election Act are essential contents on political fundamental rights education in school. These procedure of amendment law and amendment content have to be just and reasonable. Therefore, as a representative of citizens, members of the National Assembly have to be serious and cautious in every law making procedure and its contents. On December 27th of 2019, the South Korean National Assembly went through an amendment procedure and changed the partial part of the Public Election Act. The change included lowering the voting age to 18 and distributing the National Assembly seat through a proportional representation system. However, honestly speaking, these changes and the amendment procedure are facing many criticisms. First of all, amendment procedure was carried out through the Expedited legislative process (also known as fast-track process); while going through this process, there have been many disputes claiming that the process did not follow up with the original intent of the Expedited legislative process. Second, in the process of lowering the voting age to 18, the National Assembly used an anomalous method, instead of going through a debate and deliberation process. Third, although a proportional representation system has been imposed, it is a deformed semi-proportional representation system that is unsuitable for long-term and continuous foundation for the Election Act.