The Constitutional Court has ruled for the first time that the early voting system, which allows voters who cannot cast ballots on Election Day to vote during a designated period beforehand, does not violate the Constitution.

According to legal sources on Sunday, the full bench of the Constitutional Court issued the unanimous ruling on Thursday, dismissing a constitutional petition filed by a law professor and others in October 2023.

In the complaint, the petitioners argued that the early voting system in its current form infringes on voting and equality rights.

The Constitutional Court ruled that even though early voters have less time to consider their choices than those who vote on Election Day, they can obtain sufficient information through various media and therefore early voting does not infringe on their rights.

The court explained that early voting is intended to overcome the temporal and spatial limitations of elections, provide voters with greater convenience, ensure greater opportunities to exercise voting rights, and ultimately help increase voter turnout.