Candidates for the presidential elections in South Korea are looking for constitutional amendments, amid popular calls to reduce the president’s powers after the martial law.
The political crisis in South Korea sparked calls from the two parties to make constitutional amendments to restructure the president’s powers, a severe discussion issue before the early elections scheduled for June 3.
Li Jae Meong, the most fortunate candidate, suggested to the liberal Democratic Party as a presidential system for two states, a regime to restore, and a parliamentary nomination for the post of Prime Minister.
He also pledged in a letter he wrote on his Facebook page to seek to restore communication between his country and North Korea, including communication through a hot military line.
It includes a proposal for me that the term be 4 years, with two consecutive periods for the presidents who will hold their positions from 2030 onwards, a regulation of presidential elections, and a parliamentary nomination of the Prime Minister.
“The next president should start to collect the general consensus based on his electoral promises regarding the constitutional amendment and move forward with the support of the two parties,” Lee told reporters on Sunday.
On May 18, he told me, “The responsibility of the president must be strengthened, and powers must be decentralized.”
Last April, Lee rejected a proposal from Parliament Speaker Wu Won Chic, to hold a referendum on constitutional reform on the day of the presidential election on the third of June at that time.
The call to hold the elections came after former President Yun Suk Yol was dismissed and his dismissal from his position because of his sudden decree imposing martial law last December, and the main party candidates pledged to seek constitutional reforms.
Presidential immunity
For his part, Kim Moon Sue, the presidential candidate, revealed the “Conservative People’s Force Party”, a reformist proposal that includes a 4 -year presidential system, with two periods for future presidents.
He promised to reduce his term to 3 years if he was elected as a new president, so that the presidential and public elections can be held in the same year starting in 2028, and he pledged to cancel the presidential immunity.
Kim and his party criticized me for not pledged to reduce the next presidency, but I said that the stable governance and economic recovery will be more important to the leader coming from spending a large part of his mandate to review the constitution only.
“The chances of success in a constitutional amendment are higher than ever.”.
He pointed out that the last constitutional amendment was in 1987, to introduce direct presidential elections and one period of 5 years, and these changes were discussed for a long time, but they were never applied.
On the proposals of the amendment currently presented, Chay said, “While Kim shares similar goals, the motives of the competitors are different, and I believe that Kim put forward the idea of forming a transitional government to review the constitution as a way to apologize for martial law.”
“The candidate did not initially respond to her to offer it, not to attract attention to him, but he now puts it to attract more moderate voters,” he added.
In recent years, the presidential candidates from various political spectrums have supported constitutional amendments, including granting presidents for two periods, each of them 4 years, but only a few steps were taken after the selection of new leaders.
A poll conducted by the Gallup Corporation last month showed that 67% of the participants support a review of the constitution to reform the presidential system, while 21% saw that it was unnecessary.