Residents seek recall vote on governor Hong

By Chung Ah-young

Park Eun-joo

Residents of South Gyeongsang Province are seeking to recall Governor Hong Joon-pyo for abusing power and making arbitrary decisions on policies against their will.

The South Gyeongsang Election Commission said Tuesday it has allowed 200 citizens to collect signatures from residents there, a pre-step for a recall vote.

“We want to recall Hong because he has been the source of conflict and trouble in the province instead of solving it,” a representative of the recall vote campaign group said. “Also, Hong cannot properly operate the government as he is on trial for allegedly amassing illegal political funds,” he said.

Hong, a political heavyweight of the ruling Saenuri Party, has been under fire after making a series of controversial decisions on major policies as well as his involvement in alleged political irregularities.

Hong stopped a free school meal program in March except for students in low-income brackets citing a lack of budget, despite strong opposition from parents and the regional educational office. Instead, he pledged more financial aid for the underprivileged.

Also, the provincial government decided to shut down the Jinju Medical Center in May, citing a deficit of 27.9 billion won, ignoring protests from its unionized workers and opposition lawmakers.

Aside from provincial affairs, Hong has been under investigation on charges of receiving 100 million won in campaign funds in 2011 from the late Keangnam Enterprises Chairman Sung Woan-jong.

He recently provoked the ire of Changwon citizens by saying he would withdraw a joint project establishing Masan Robot Land, a robot-themed park, with the Changwon City Government.

The citizens’ group said the recent conflict with Changwon might bring the recall campaign success as the number of Changwon citizens, 850,000, represents one third of the total 2.6 million eligible voters in the province.

To recall the governor, it requires the signatures of some 267,000 residents, or 10 percent of eligible voters in the province. A vote can be held when more than 10 percent of eligible voters sign to hold a ballot to oust the municipal head.

For the vote to be valid, more than one third of eligible voters are required to cast a ballot. The result will then be decided according to whether more than half the voters consent to the dismissal or not.

The 200 people selected by the election commission to collect signatures will do so for up to 120 days. The group plans to collect the required signatures by the end of this year or early next year and submit it to the commission.

Hong’s term in office expires in 2018.

Since the recall vote was introduced in 2007, there have been eight recall votes, including one in Hanam, Gyeonggi Province, in 2007 and the other in Jeju Special Self-Governing Province in 2009. All failed to gather the required number of participants.