Gwangju Civic Group: "Voters' Power Must Break the Democratic Party's One-Party Monopoly"

The Political Reform Gwangju Citizens' Coalition is holding a press conference at the 5·18 Culture Square on the 25th.

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Junho] A civic group in Gwangju appealed to citizens to "break the one-party monopoly of the Democratic Party of Korea through the June 1 local elections."

The Political Reform Gwangju Citizens' Coalition held a press conference at 11 a.m. on the 25th at the 5·18 Culture Square in Dong-gu, Gwangju Metropolitan City, making this claim.

The coalition stated, "In the metropolitan council elections, 11 out of 20 district council members were elected unopposed, meaning that in Gwangju, the city of 5·18, the Democratic Party can win just by placing a candidate. This is a shocking event for Gwangju, and the local autonomy democracy that President Kim Dae-jung earnestly tried to promote is in serious crisis."

They added, "Under the local political order where both the administration and the council that checks it are entirely dominated by the Democratic Party, the ones suffering are the citizens," criticizing that "there have been frequent cases where party policies took precedence over citizens' demands."

The group said, "The Democratic Party promised to create a political order that reflects diverse public demands through electoral reforms such as mixed-member proportional representation and regional proportional representation, but this promise was not kept," and raised their voices, saying, "The Democratic Party chose to maintain vested interests over reform and became obsessed with pursuing small gains rather than justice."

They also revealed, "In Gwangju, they flatly ignored demands for no nomination of proportional candidates for basic and metropolitan councils and for nominating two candidates per basic council as conditions to realize vote proportionality, and completed their own vested-interest league that disregards citizens, amid suspicions of vote-buying in the electoral college and illegal additional recruitment of electoral college members."

They continued, "It has become difficult to expect the Democratic Party to correct these mistakes on its own, and the one-party monopoly structure in Gwangju is beginning to reveal its full drawbacks," emphasizing, "The record of 11 city council members elected unopposed, exceeding the majority of the district-based council seats, is the result of the Democratic Party's one-party monopoly regime that has never been properly checked or replaced since the local elections were held in 1995."

They concluded, "Only the voters, the citizens, can correct the Democratic Party's arrogance," appealing, "Please cast strategic votes for progressive parties in this local election to create a new political order where the principles of checks and balances operate."