Key S. Korea Party Offers Constitution Revision Proposal
The main opposition party offered its proposal Friday for an amended constitution, with the main feature a provision for electing the president directly instead of through an electoral college.
The New Korea Democratic Party’s proposal was submitted to the National Assembly’s Ad Hoc Committee on Constitutional Reform, which is to submit a draft constitution to the full assembly by the end of the year.
The party, which holds 90 seats in the 276-seat assembly, has been campaigning for democratic reform since it was founded in early 1985.
The governing Democratic Justice Party of President Chun Doo Hwan, with 148 seats, is expected to submit its draft in about two weeks. The party favors a parliamentary Cabinet system, in which a prime minister elected by the assembly would hold most executive powers.
The 45-member ad hoc committee held its third plenary session Friday after beginning work last week.
The committee was formed after Chun bowed to opposition demands that the constitution be changed before the next presidential election in 1988. Chun had insisted that reforms be put off until after the elections and the 1988 Summer Olympic Games in Seoul.
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