Registration started Sunday for overseas Korean residents who want to vote in the parliamentary elections next April. On the first day, about 600 people visited designated Korean missions abroad for registration.

We cannot predict how many of the 2.24 million eligible Koreans living abroad will have registered by the Feb. 11 deadline and how many of those registered will actually cast their votes two months later, each time taking the trouble of travelling to Korean offices. But we can make a grave prediction about what impact the new overseas voting system will have on Korean expatriate communities.

There was time when the then-authoritarian government in Seoul recruited influential figures in overseas Korean communities for a few proportional representation seats in the National Assembly or membership in the presidential advisory council on unification. The result was deeply disturbing: Overseas Korean residents’ associations were divided into two groups, one made up of people who supported the government in Seoul and the other opposing it and sympathizing with the pro-democracy movement at home.

It is now feared that the new overseas voting system which is to be applied for the first time in the next parliamentary election will again divide overseas Korean communities, this time into pro- and anti-government or liberal and conservative groups, emulating the situation in Korea. It is not hard to imagine what will happen in the Korean associations in Los Angeles, New York and Tokyo when presidential election campaigns heat up next year.

Two million is a big number, and could decide the result of a tightly contested presidential election in Korea. Campaigners from political parties will make visits to Korean enclaves overseas to gather as many votes for their respective candidates as possible. Political tension and antagonism will grip otherwise peaceful Korean expatriate societies in large cities in the United States, Japan and Europe.

It may be legally correct, as the Constitutional Court ruled in 2007, that Korean residents overseas should be able to exercise their political rights as citizens of the Republic of Korea. Yet, we still have the lingering doubts about whether they are familiar enough with Korean politics to be able to choose their votes wisely. As for those who have permanent residency overseas, what is important is the local politics of the place they live in now; the campaign pledges of the candidates in Korean elections have little meaning in their lives.

The new system concerns both the 919,000 permanent overseas residents and the 1,317,000 people who are temporarily living abroad, such as students and employees of Korean official or private organizations. They have to first register with one of 158 Korean overseas missions designated by the National Election Commission during three months until next Feb. 11 and then visit there again between March 28 and April 2 if they want to cast their ballots.

Many will appreciate the kind voting system that recognizes their sacred rights as Koreans, but there will be many others who will feel confused about their sense of belonging between the country they left and the place they chose to live in for the rest of their lives. We have no objection to allowing absentee voting for those temporarily overseas but we would call on our lawmakers and jurists to reconsider whether it really is right and necessary to let overseas permanent residents vote in elections at home, even though they do not intend to return in the foreseeable future.