Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae holds a press conference on the province's fiscal situation at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, on Aug. 5. [Newsis]
Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae holds a press conference on the province's fiscal situation at the Gyeonggi Provincial Government building in Yeongtong-gu, Suwon, on Aug. 5. [Newsis]

A petition calling on Gyeonggi Province Governor Choo Mi-ae to resign was closed early after her office issued an official response, cutting off further participation even though more than 20 days remained in the petition period.

According to Gyeonggi Province, the petition — titled "We petition for the resignation of Governor Choo Mi-ae" and posted on the Gyeonggi Province petition website Friday — was marked "response complete" Tuesday after reaching 30,775 signatories, effectively ending participation.

The petition criticized Choo for her recent declaration of a "fiscal emergency," large-scale expenditure restructuring and controversy over her use of the official governor's residence, and demanded her resignation.

Under Gyeonggi Province petition rules, a petition surpassing 10,000 signatures becomes subject to an official response from the governor, who must reply within 30 days of posting. This petition crossed the 10,000-signature threshold at around 5:30 p.m. Monday — just three days after it was posted.

When the signature count surpassed 30,000 Tuesday, the province posted its official response. The move was unusually swift: past practice had been to post responses only after the full petition period — typically one month — had elapsed, even when the 10,000-signature threshold was crossed well before the deadline.

Once the response was posted, the petition was reclassified as "response complete" and closed ahead of schedule. Petitions in that category are no longer open for new signatures.

A Gyeonggi Province official said the high volume of participation made a prompt response necessary.

In her response, Choo said the 2026 Gyeonggi Province livelihood budget drawn up last year had covered only nine months of spending and that nearly all available reserve funds and internal resources had already been tapped, leaving almost no additional fiscal room. "Despite this, I express deep regret over the distortion of facts — as if the ninth elected-term provincial administration had deliberately cut a properly drafted livelihood budget," she said.

The response mirrored a written briefing issued Monday by Gyeonggi Province spokesperson Hong Eun-gwang. Choo is understood to have determined that the spokesperson's briefing reflected her own position and directed that it serve as the official petition response.

Meanwhile, several similar petitions calling for Choo's resignation appeared on the Gyeonggi Province petition website Tuesday, though some were hidden from public view.

The website currently displays a pop-up notice stating that petitions identical in content to one that has already received a response will be excluded from processing under the site's operating guidelines.

The Gyeonggi chapter of the Progressive Party criticized the early closure, saying the province had "completely blocked residents from expressing their views" by shutting down participation on grounds that a response had been posted — even though the petition period was set to run through Oct. 11 and the standard 30-day public comment window should have been guaranteed.


betterj@heraldcorp.com