Hwaseong City Rejects Signature Petition for Merger of Three Cities

Hwaseong City made a final decision on the 16th to reject the signature petition submitted by the Citizens' Committee for Integration of Hwaseong, Osan, and Suwon (hereinafter referred to as the Integration Committee).

The city stated that of the signatures submitted by the Integration Committee, only 1,717 signatures were deemed valid, falling short of the 7,386 required valid signatures, and that the corrective period has elapsed, hence the rejection decision.

The Integration Committee submitted a signature petition with 13,240 signatures on November 21st, but Hwaseong City determined that 11,523 signatures were invalid due to uncertain signatures, missing or incorrect resident registration numbers and addresses, and duplicates, recognizing only 1,717 as valid. The city notified the Integration Committee to submit a corrected petition. However, the Integration Committee failed to submit the corrected petition by the deadline of December 15th.

Meanwhile, Hwaseong City notified the Integration Committee of its rejection decision and submitted the city's position on the three-city merger to Gyeonggi Province on the 16th.

The city submitted its opinion that the creation of a mammoth-sized primary local government with a population of 2 million through the three-city merger raises concerns about undermining grassroots local autonomy, where regional residents make decisions on regional issues.

Hwaseong City also stated that it views the local administrative system reorganization plan being pursued by the government as lacking decentralization content in education, firefighting, and public safety—areas essential to local autonomy and closely related to residents' daily lives.

The city stated that rather than a forced merger of the three cities, it would be more desirable to establish an organic administrative cooperation system among local governments, prioritizing residents' stability and convenience while developing through mutual competition and complementation.

In response, a Suwon City official stated, "The merger issue is to be decided according to the will of residents, and the validity of signatures has already been authoritatively interpreted as valid in an official document by the Committee for Local Administrative System Reorganization. Hwaseong City's rejection decision is very regrettable as it distorts and disregards the will of Hwaseong citizens who support integration."

Meanwhile, the Integration Committee for the three cities made a protest visit on the same day regarding the lukewarm response from the Committee for Local Administrative System Reorganization.

Yoo Hyeung-geun, chairman of the Hwaseong Citizens' Committee for Integration, strongly opposed the decision, stating, "Hwaseong City's decision tramples on the opinions of Hwaseong citizens who participated in the signature campaign," and expressed the committee's position that "we will take active measures including administrative lawsuits and citizen recalls in response to the rejection decision."