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)