Ruling Party Wants to Discuss Constitutional Change in Sept.
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The governing Grand National Party (GNP) will seek to create a bipartisan committee to discuss a constitutional change in September, the party's floor leader said Wednesday.
President Lee Myung-bak has called for the redrawing of administrative and electoral districts and improvement of the election system to boost efficiency.
In his speech to mark the Aug. 15 Liberation Day, Lee emphasized the need for overhauling inefficient political practices such as having national elections almost every year and regionalism-based politics. Constitutional change is a prerequisite for redrawing administrative districts.
GNP floor leader Ahn Sang-soo said that he would reach out to his counterparts of opposition parties at an early date to discuss the issue.
He asked lawmakers to come up with ideas about how to change the Constitution to reflect contemporary Korea in a National Assembly session that opens next month.
National Assembly Speaker Kim Hyong-o, an advocate of constitutional revision, made similar remarks.
Kim urged lawmakers again to complete the revision by next year.
He said the constitutional revision should be finished before the local elections slated for next June.
The speaker contended that constitutional change would make it easier for Korea to overcome the negative effects of regionalism and achieve social integration.
Constitutional change requires the ruling party to work closely with opposition parties because a quorum needed for the passage of a constitutional revision is two-thirds (200) of the lawmakers or more.
The GNP has 168 seats in the 299-member legislature, while the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) has 84 seats. The Liberty Forward Party has 18 seats; the pro-Park Geun-hye coalition, five; and the Democratic Labor Party, five. The rest are shared by splinter parties and independents.
Public opinion surveys find that about two-thirds of sitting lawmakers back constitutional change. But the support rate does not mean that a bipartisan agreement will be made easily, political analysts say.
This is because they have different ideas and suggestions regarding the power structure and it won't be easy for them to narrow their differences, they said.
Supporters of constitutional revision said that the President is given too much power under the current Constitution and this led to some former heads of state facing unfortunate retirements as a result of their abuse of power while in office.
But some Constitution scholars said revising the basic law is not a solution to the abuse of presidential power, emphasizing that establishing political norms and institutions will be more effective to resolve the problem.