By Na Jeong-ju
Staff Reporter
Constitutional revision is expected to gather momentum ahead of the local elections in early June.
In recent weeks, Grand National Party (GNP) Chairman Park Hee-tae, National Assembly speaker Kim Hyung-o ― a GNP member ― and other party heavyweights have raised the need for a constitutional change.
Supporters of constitutional revision say that the power is currently centered too much on the President.
They say the National Assembly should limit this power, while the current single five-year term should be replaced with a four-year term ensuring an opportunity for the President to seek re-election.
At the same time, the country should redraw electoral and administrative districts to reflect the constitutional change, they say.
Making three GNP lawmakers Cabinet members reflects the expected close coordination between Cheong Wa Dae and the party over Constitutional revision ahead of the elections next June, analysts said.
``The revision is expected to become a hot issue as the elections near. It is quite encouraging for the GNP that many opposition lawmakers share the need to reform, even though they differ over how to do this,'' said Lee Sang-don, a politics professor from Chungang University.
``President Lee Myung-bak's naming of GNP lawmakers as ministers raises the chances that the governing camp will step up its reform drive in the coming months,'' he added.
The professor expects that the designation of former Seoul National University President Chung Un-chan as the new prime minister will help the conservative leader gain wider public support for his reform plans.
A rising public approval rating for the President since he announced a series of measures for ordinary and less-privileged people also bodes well for the ruling camp.
``Recent opinion polls show Lee has become a more popular head of state. It will make it easier for him to push for political and economic reform,'' said GNP floor leader Ahn Sang-soo.
Lee's approval rate has gone back above 40 percent after dipping as low as 20 percent last year during heated nationwide protests against the resumption of U.S. beef imports, the surveys said.
``One of the key stumbling blocks in pushing for the Constitutional change ahead is deadlocked relations with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP). We will seek ways to restore dialogue with the DP,'' Ahn said.
The GNP plans to create a bipartisan committee as early as this month to discuss a constitutional change and ways to reform administrative and electoral districts.
President Lee has pledged to strengthen communication with politicians, saying the passage of bills related to the livelihoods of ordinary citizens in the National Assembly's plenary session in September is crucial to revive the economy.
In a Cabinet reshuffle that replaced the prime minister and six other ministers, Lee named GNP lawmaker Choi Kyoung-hwan as minister of knowledge. Rep. Yim Tae-hee, former head of the ruling party's policy committee, was nominated to become the new labor minister, and Rep. Joo Ho-young was picked for the position of minister without portfolio, a new post that does not head a particular ministry but has a vote in the Cabinet.