Gyeonggi Governor Resignation Petition Ends Early at 30,000 Signatures in Five Days

A provincial petition urging Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae to resign has ended early after attracting some 30,000 participants within five days of its posting.

According to Gyeonggi Province and other sources on today (Sept. 15), the petition titled "I petition for the resignation of Governor Choo Mi-ae," which was uploaded to the Gyeonggi Petitions website on the 11th of this month, recorded 30,775 participants today and was classified as a "completed response" petition.

The petition criticizes Governor Choo over her recent declaration of a "fiscal emergency," expenditure restructuring, and controversies surrounding her official residence, demanding her resignation.

Once a petition is classified as having a completed response, no further participation is allowed.

If a petition exceeds 10,000 participants, it becomes subject to an official response from the governor, which must be provided within 30 days of the petition. This petition surpassed 10,000 participants at 5:30 p.m. the previous day, just four days after it was posted.

Then, exactly one day later today, upon surpassing 30,000 participants, the province's official response was posted, and it was closed as a completed response petition.

This is an unusually swift action compared to past precedents where responses were posted after the petition period ended, even if participation exceeded 10,000 during the usual one-month petition period.

A Gyeonggi Province official explained, "We judged that it was necessary to respond quickly because of the large number of petition participants, which is why the response was posted."

In response to the petition, Governor Choo stated through her reply, "The livelihood-essential budget for Gyeonggi Province for 2026, formulated last year, reflected only nine months' worth, and with a significant portion of various funds and internal financial resources heavily utilized, there is practically no additional fiscal capacity left to mobilize." She added, "Nevertheless, I express deep regret over the distortion of facts as if the 9th popular election provincial administration deliberately cut a properly formulated livelihood budget."

This content is identical to the written briefing given the previous day by Gyeonggi Province Spokesperson Hong Eun-kwang.

Governor Choo judged that the spokesperson's written briefing did not differ from her own stance and instructed that it be used as the petition response.

Meanwhile, several similar petitions demanding Governor Choo's resignation were uploaded to the Gyeonggi Petitions website today, but some were hidden.

Currently, accessing the website brings up a pop-up window stating, "According to operation and processing guidelines, petitions with the same content as a petition that has already received a completed response are excluded from processing."

The Gyeonggi Provincial chapter of the Progressive Party issued a critical statement today regarding the early closure of the resignation petition.

In the statement, they claimed, "Gyeonggi Province rushed to close the petition by issuing a response just five days after it was posted," adding, "Even though the petition period runs until October 11 and a 30-day opinion-gathering period should normally be guaranteed, cutting off further participation under the pretext of a completed response effectively blocks residents from expressing their opinions."

(Photo: Capture of the Gyeonggi Petitions website, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.