What Percentages of Supporting Vote should be the Public’s Confidence in President Roh’s Leadership?

What is the percentage of support President Roh should have in order to gain the publics’ confidence in his leadership?

It arises that the standards for the confidence evaluation must be stated. President Roh proposed the plebiscite of a confidence evaluation, but specific standards for the confidence evaluation have not been presented and there is a diversity of opinion.

The constitution in force stipulates that a plebiscite could be put in operation in case of the national crisis, such as the constitution amendment, diplomacy, national defense, and unification. According to Article 130 of the constitution, however, it only states that the constitution is amendable by a majority vote of the voters of the lawmakers and a majority yes votes from the voters, with the approval of two-thirds of the lawmakers at the National Assembly first. But there is no provision for the case of the plebiscite for the national crisis.

In the provision of the law for the referendum, there are provisions of vote formalities and ways, but it also does not prescribe the participation of majority voters on the register.

Therefore, in theory, less than the majority of people will vote. And also it is possible to have a result of 51 percent voting in the affirmative.

If 40 percents of the voters take part in the plebiscite and 51 percent of them cast a favorable vote, then the confidence of the total voters in President Roh is just 20 percent. In this case, a controversy could arise because the results of the plebiscite may or may not be approved by the public.

Park Sang-cheon, the leader of the Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), pointed out the problem as the main reason against the plebiscite on October 15 at his representative speech at the negotiation body. There is a rumor that the problem was also raised as an issue at a meeting of the leaders and the floor leaders’ of the three opposition groups, the GNP, the MDP, and the ULD.

Park insisted, “People are struggling for their living. In the vortex of their busy lives, how many people will take part in a true-false vote, which asks the pros or cons for the incumbent president and not even the candidates’ competition election?”

In spite of the people against the constitution controversy, many people raise an objection that if the plebiscite is carried out, the standard for the presidential election should be applicable.

Assuming the plebiscite of a confidence evaluation is unconstitutional, constitutional

Professor Jang Young-su of Korea University said, “If the plebiscite is carried out, however, it is difficult to apply stricter standards than the presidential election. Even at the presidential election, it is not forced to have a majority turnout of the voters, and the number of votes obtained is left out of consideration.”

Meanwhile, the politics insists that every upheaval is incurred because President Roh himself does not clarify the standards of his confidence evaluation. Therefore, the politics claims that the standard for a confidence evaluation has to be reached to an agreement first.

Yong-Gwan Jung yongari@donga.com