[Editorial] Electoral map redrawing

Less than a week remains before the legal Nov. 13 deadline for redrawing the electoral map. Yet talks on the matter between the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy still remain stalled amid the escalating confrontation over history textbooks.

The two parties need to rush to hammer out an agreement on the issue because a further delay in fixing the parliamentary boundaries would create a big mess.

At every election, the electoral map has been redrawn hurriedly at the last minute. But this time, things are different. At previous elections, boundary readjustment was limited to a few districts. But for the coming election, the boundaries of at least 62 districts have to be redrawn because of the Constitutional Court’s ruling last year that the population differences between electoral districts should be no greater than 2 to 1 to ensure fairness in representation.

With the number of affected districts so large, redrawing the electoral map is by no means an easy job. That is why the two parties agreed to entrust the redistricting task to an independent committee under the National Election Commission.

The NEC committee was required to submit a redrawing plan to the National Assembly by Oct. 13 so the legislation process could be completed by Nov. 13. But it failed to do so because of the differences between the two rival parties.

The redistricting task was sent back to the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Political Reform. But the parliamentary panel has remained idle for weeks. Now it seems almost certain the two parties will let the Nov. 13 deadline pass.

Preliminary candidate registration for the April 13 general elections is due to begin on Dec. 15. But if boundary readjustment is delayed, candidates will have difficulty making preparations for campaigning because they cannot be sure for which district they will be vying.

Should the two parties fail to revise the Public Official Election Act even after Dec. 15, preliminary candidate registration itself would become invalid, which means candidates would not be allowed to do any campaign activities.

The delay in determining electoral boundaries has already started to cause confusion among candidates. But if the delay is further extended, a big mess is inevitable. To avoid it, the parties should resume the stalled talks as soon as possible.

The NPAD would do well to follow a dual-track approach. While resisting the government’s push for state-designated history textbooks, it is advised to normalize the National Assembly to deal with the redistricting issue and other urgent legislative matters.