GNP Chairman to Promote Constitutional Amendment after General Election

GNP Chairman Choe Byung-ryol announced on January 24 that he would promote a constitutional amendment after the general election to introduce a decentralized presidential system or a parliamentary system of government.

“We have to adapt a decentralized presidential system or a parliamentary system of government for an election that does not focus on fund raising,” Choe emphasized at a breakfast meeting with party members of the Gimhae Chapter in Gyeongnam.

Choe also said that the coming general election should not be all about fund raising and that “we need to implement political reform if we want to stop this from happening in the next presidential election, too.”

The political reform issue is likely to further expand since this was the first time that he had mentioned the promotion of the constitutional amendment in public.

The Uri Party criticized the remark as a “political strategy targeting the general election against the people’s will.”

“We are not saying that we will promote the amendment before the general election or take it as our party’s public pledge for the election,” explained one of Choe’s spokespeople, Park Jin, after the visit to Gimhae.

Thirty leading representatives, including Rep. Seo Cheong-won, former chairman of the GNP Park Hee-tae, and floor leader Hong Sa-deok, have publicly expressed the need for a constitutional amendment for a decentralized presidential system.

Meanwhile, Choe pointed out once in early December of last year that “the 2007 presidential election should not be the same as before” and that “an enormous amount of money has been put into the election since the president’s power is so strong that every candidate would do whatever it takes to seize that power.”

Myoung-Gun Lee gun43@donga.com