By Jun Ji-hye
The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that it is unconstitutional to ban people sentenced to suspended prison terms from casting their ballots.
The court unanimously decided Article 18 of the Election Law, limiting the voting rights of people with suspended sentences, is unconstitutional. The decision will enable those people to participate from the local polls in June 4.
The decision came after civic groups made constitutional appeals three times. In 2004 and 2009, the court determined it was constitutional. In 2011, the National Human Rights Commission said to the then-justice minister, “Limitation of basic rights should be implemented in very limited cases.”
A court official said, “The decision came as those on suspended prison terms live the same life as ordinary citizens. The fact that few countries ban those from voting also affected the determination.”
With regard to limiting voting rights of those in prison, the court decided that is incompatible with the Constitution. Such decision, which has the same impact as a ruling of unconstitutionality, comes when mass confusion would be expected if the court immediately invalidated the relevant law.
So, the court set Dec. 31, 2015 as the deadline for legislating the relevant revisions. If the National Assembly fails to meet that deadline, the clause will automatically lose effectiveness from the first election in 2016.