SEOUL: Members of South Korea's ruling conservative party have proposed a bill that would put tighter restrictions on the voting rights of foreign permanent residents in local elections, which they insist is necessary to protect the country's democracy from being undermined by Chinese voters.
Critics say the bill's efforts to pass the bill could exacerbate racism and hatred towards Chinese people living in South Korea and would be a step back in an increasingly multicultural society that needs to embrace immigration to make up for an aging and shrinking population.
People Power Party spokesman Kweon Seong-dong, a close ally of President Yoon Suk-yeol, said Tuesday it has become a priority to prevent the voting system from being used as a maneuvering tool by other governments. He said that there was significant public concern over the political influence of Chinese nationals, who accounted for nearly 100,000 of the 127,600 foreigners with voting rights as of March.
Most of the citizens living overseas don't have voting rights in the countries they live in, according to Kweon, according to Facebook. South Korea's voting laws do not support the principle of reciprocity, he said, because the communist countries like China, the United States and Britain are only giving voting rights to those with citizenship.
Under current law, foreign nationals with at least three years of permanent residency are eligible to vote for mayors, governors, and local council members.