By Kim Rahn
The number of citizen’s signatures has been met to hold a referendum to stop the free school lunch program, a civic coalition said Tuesday.
Without an outright backing from the ruling Grand National Party (GNP), Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has staged a lonely fight against the school meal program supported by the Seoul Metropolitan Council. The vote is expected to determine his political fate.
The National Anti-Populism Union, which has collected signatures, said a total of 428,984 citizens signed to hold the poll as of Monday — more than 418,000, the minimum figure required to hold the residents’ poll, or 5 percent of total eligible voters.
“We have enough signatures. But we’ll continue collecting signatures to reach 700,000, given that about 30 percent of the signatures usually become null and void for reasons such as ineligible voters,” Kim Choon-kyu, head of the union, said in a press briefing in central Seoul.
The deadline for the signature collection, which started on Feb. 9, is Aug. 7, but the union expects to reach the target in early June. “We’ll submit the signature list to the authorities immediately after getting 700,000 signatures, so that the voting can take place as soon as possible,” Kim said.
When the union submits the petition to Seoul City, the city government will review it to confirm whether the signatures are of eligible voters.
It will then exhibit the list to the public for a week and, if there is no objection, will request the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission to govern the voting process.
The referendum was planned against the free school lunch program currently provided to all students at elementary schools regardless of a parents’ financial status since March after the city council, dominated by the opposition Democratic Party (DP) members, passed an ordinance and budget bill.
Mayor Oh refused to execute the budget, claiming it is a populist welfare campaign and the budget should be spent for other urgent educational issues rather than free meals to children even in high-income brackets.
The referendum will reveal whether people side with Oh or the council.
His fight, however, has not gained much support from the ruling party to which he belongs, even though it has opposed the DP’s “three-free campaign” — free school meal, medical service and childcare.
The party has recently changed its stance to halve college tuition fees — a pledge originally promoted by the DP and criticized by the GNP as being “populism.”