Kwon Youngguk: "Introducing Public Ownership of Land into the Constitution... Expanding National Assembly to 500 Members"

Announcement of Constitutional Amendment and Political Reform Pledges

Kwon Youngguk, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Labor Party, stated on the 26th, "I will introduce the concept of public ownership of land, the basic right to food, food sovereignty, and the principle of sustainable agriculture into the Constitution."

Kwon Youngguk, the presidential candidate of the Democratic Labor Party, is speaking at the 2nd candidate debate for the 21st presidential election hosted by the Central Election Broadcasting Debate Commission, held at the KBS main building studio in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul on the 23rd. Photo by National Assembly Press Photographers Group

During the announcement of his pledges on constitutional amendment and political reform that day, Kwon said, "I will expand new rights for citizens that have been delayed since 1987," adding, "All candidates talk about constitutional amendment, but all discussions are limited to adjusting the presidential term."

Kwon also said, "I will introduce a system allowing citizens to propose bills and constitutional amendments," explaining, "If a certain number of citizens propose a bill or a constitutional amendment, the National Assembly will be obligated to deliberate on it."

Kwon stated, "The 'Plaza Constitution' will change the subject of provisions related to basic rights from 'citizens' to 'people' across the board," and added, "In articles related to labor rights, the term 'geulloja' (workers) will be changed to 'nodongja' (laborers) throughout. Labor must be redefined from the perspective of working laborers, not from the viewpoint of business owners."

Kwon also said, "I will introduce a runoff voting system in presidential, local government head, and all local constituency assembly elections, as is done in France," and added, "I will push for electoral reform that enhances proportional representation by introducing the region-based open-list proportional representation system (Swedish model) that was proposed in the 21st National Assembly. I will also reform the system to set the number of National Assembly members at one per 100,000 people, which is the OECD average (about 500 members)."