On the 19th, a petition by party members to completely delete the provision of Article 80 of the Party Constitution of the Democratic Party of Korea, ‘suspending the party in case of prosecution’, received more than 50,000 consent, which is the standard of response from the leadership. Earlier, the Democratic Party’s party committee voted unanimously on the amendment to Article 80 of the Party Constitution on the same day.
According to the party petition system of the Democratic Party, the petition titled ‘I request the complete deletion of Article 80 of the Party Constitution’ had received the consent of 5352 people as of 8:19 pm that day.
The petitioner filed a petition on the 17th, claiming, “Now, as a political retaliation investigation, the (prosecution’s) sword is holding the Democratic Party’s leash.” did.
“This is an abnormal republic of prosecutors,” he said. “We cannot leave political judgments to the prosecution. Article 80 of the Constitution must be completely deleted.”
▲ Woo Sang-ho, chairman of the Democratic Party’s emergency countermeasures committee, is being asked questions from reporters regarding the revision of Article 80 of the Party Constitution at the National Assembly Hall on the 16th.
Reporter Kim Myung-guk
The need for revision of the provision was raised due to the ‘possibility of being misused for political retaliation by the Yun Seok-yeol administration’, and discussions within the party for revision began on the 20th of last month. However, if it is revised at the time the police investigation is underway towards candidate Lee Jae-myung, who is running for the party’s representative election, it could become a ‘Lee Jae-myung bulletproof dragon’, causing controversy.
On the 16th, the party’s ex-level committee voted to change the standard of suspension from ‘prosecution’ to ‘convict of a lower court of imprisonment or higher’.
However, controversy grew over the decision of the previous level, and in the end, the Democratic Party’s Extraordinary Committee proposed a compromise in which the decision-making body was changed from the Ethics Tribunal to the Party Affairs Committee while maintaining the ‘suspension of the party upon indictment’. The compromise plan was approved by the party committee on the same day and is awaiting a vote at the central committee.
However, it seems difficult for the Democratic Party leadership to discuss the deletion of the provision before the August 27 National Convention.
Chairman Woo Sang-ho of the Emergency Response Committee met with reporters at the National Assembly during the day and said, “From the perspective of those who have petitioned, it may be judged that this is not enough, but the party leadership has made a compromise by combining the opinions of party members and the opinions of the general assembly of members.”
He also explained, “Because the revision of the Party constitution and bylaws goes through the party affairs committee’s resolution and the Central Committee procedure next week, it is immediately transferred to the sub-team, so starting a re-debate now, even in a timely manner, will not be able to proceed with the sub-group.”
By Seo Yu-mi