National Assembly Repeatedly Misses Opportunities for NEC Reform… Was There a Reason for Their Hesitation?

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It is not as if there have been no attempts to structurally reform the National Election Commission (NEC). Relevant bills have been consistently proposed in the National Assembly, but they have frequently been discarded without ever being processed. Critics point out that the National Assembly has missed legislative opportunities by being overly conscious of the NEC, which holds the authority to interpret election laws.

Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon has the story.

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Even during the 2022 presidential election, when the "basket voting" controversy erupted, bills to reform the National Election Commission were proposed one after another in the National Assembly.

[Kim Gyo-heung / Democratic Party lawmaker (then-Chair of the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee): I urge the NEC to pay special attention so that it can regain the public's trust as a constitutional institution in both name and reality. I am submitting the bills for consideration.]

During the 21st National Assembly, various reform bills were proposed, ranging from changing the NEC Chairperson to a full-time position, introducing National Assembly confirmation hearings for the Secretary-General—a ministerial-level post—to opening the auditor position, which had been held by internal personnel, to external candidates.

However, these bills remained stuck at the standing committee level and were eventually scrapped when the parliamentary term expired.

Even in the 20th National Assembly, bills aimed at improving the practice of having local court judges serve as chairpersons of election commissions at various levels were proposed, but they failed to become law.

In particular, the issue regarding the structure in which a Supreme Court Justice concurrently serves as the non-permanent Chairperson of the NEC has been raised since the early 2000s. A bill to change this to a full-time position was proposed during the 17th National Assembly, but it failed to pass.

Critics suggest that these efforts have fizzled out every time because the National Assembly has been wary of the NEC, which holds the power to interpret election laws.

An aide to a lawmaker on the Public Administration and Security Committee, which oversees the NEC, described the atmosphere by saying, "When election season arrives, we have no choice but to rely on the NEC's interpretation of election laws," adding, "The National Assembly is always in the position of needing something, so we inevitably have to be conscious of the NEC."

The argument is that the National Assembly has been passive in resolving issues related to the NEC due to a subtle "superior-subordinate" relationship with the commission, which effectively acts as a "referee" during every election.

There are currently over 10 bills related to NEC reform pending in the 22nd National Assembly, and voices are growing louder that things must be different this time.

(Video reporting: Lee Seung-hwan | Video editing: Won Hyung-hee | Design: Lee Jong-jung, Jegal Chan)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.