Hwaseong City Likely to Reject Petition Signatures Related to Administrative Merger

Hwaseong City appears set to reject the petition signatures submitted by the Citizens' Integration Promotion Committee regarding administrative district merger.

According to Hwaseong City on the 4th, controversy arose after the Board of Audit and Inspection conducted an extraordinary fact-finding investigation on the 15th of last month regarding whether to recognize the petition signatures submitted by the Citizens' Integration Promotion Committee on November 21st of last year.

In relation to this, the Board of Audit and Inspection recently transferred the matter to Gyeonggi Province, and Gyeonggi Province commissioned an investigation to Hwaseong City on the 3rd.

A Hwaseong City audit official stated, "After receiving the investigation commission from Gyeonggi Province, we have not yet decided whether to begin the investigation," and added, "We will make a judgment on equal terms with other petition cases and notify Gyeonggi Province of the results by the 13th of next month."

Prior to this, the Citizens' Integration Promotion Committee did not submit the petition signatures by December 15th of last year, the correction period notified by the city.

Accordingly, Hwaseong City plans to decide by the 13th of next month whether to reject the petition signatures.

A city official stated, "While it may be a cautious judgment, it appears the Board of Audit and Inspection determined there are no issues with voiding the petition signatures," and added, "We will have to see the decision of the city audit official, but there is unlikely to be significant change in the rejection decision."

Yoo Hyeok-keun, chairman of the Integration Promotion Committee, stated, "It is difficult to understand that the relevant authorities have wasted time and now passed the investigation back to Hwaseong City," and said, "Citizens' responsibility ends at submitting the petition signatures, but if it is rejected, we will respond strongly through administrative lawsuits or recall elections."

Meanwhile, the city, after reviewing the petition signatures submitted by the Citizens' Integration Promotion Committee, found that out of 13,240 signatories, only 1,717 valid signatures (12.97%) were valid, and requested correction by the 15th of last month.