Rival parties are bracing to settle negotiations over new electoral maps this week with concerns that further delay could lead to an unprecedented pushback of the April 13 election date.

The leaderships of the ruling Saenuri Party and main opposition The Minjoo Party of Korea are scheduled to meet on Monday to hammer out agreements on the election rule that will redraw constituencies and determine the number of seats for lawmakers elected from local constituencies and proportional representations.

The rival parties have agreed that they will finalize the rule before the Assembly plenary session Tuesday, a day before overseas Koreans start their voter registration.

“If we fail to reach an agreement before Tuesday, we may have to postpone the general elections slated for April 13,” said Assembly Speaker Rep. Chung Ui-hwa on Friday. In Korea, general elections have never been postponed, although a delay was once discussed during the Syngman Rhee administration in the 1950s. The extraordinary session ends March 10. 

Officials stick identification hologram stickers onto ballot boxes at the election commission office in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, Sunday. Yonhap
While the ruling Saenuri Party has raised the possibility of arranging another plenary session before the end of the month if the negotiation protracts, the election commission officials have warned that further delay could make it physically impossible to hold the election in time.

Rookie politicians planning to run in the race have also been calling for a postponement as they say that the invalid electoral map and consequent delays in partisan nomination will hurt their competiveness against incumbents.

While the parties have reached a broad compromise on election rules, its passage has been withheld on being sidetracked by other contentious bills related to business and security matters.

This includes bills designed to boost government efforts to pursue counter-terrorism measures, overhaul labor market, relax business regulations on service industry and address North Korea’s human rights abuse. 

The Minjoo Party has demanded the Assembly passes the election bill first before dealing with other pending legislations, but the Saenuri Party insists that it will not finalize the election bill unless the main opposition cooperates in passing business and security bills.

Observers warned that if the 19th Assembly fails to redraw constituencies promptly, it will end up earning itself the infamous title of being the most late to finalize election rules in Korean history.

Lawmakers have often been blamed for determining electoral rules at the last minute. The 18th Assembly passed the election bill 44 days before elections. The worst case was the 16th assembly which enacted the bill just 37 days prior to elections. 

By Yeo Jun-suk (jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)

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