National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo has called for the creation of a special parliamentary committee dedicated to constitutional revisions.
During his New Year press conference on Wednesday, Kim expressed a resolve to create the committee by seeking bipartisan agreement.
He proposed the parties pioneer a new route to achieving constitutional amendment, adding the prospective parliamentary entity will encourage national discussions and enhance consensus on the matter and ultimately help achieve national unity.
Emphasizing predictability and stability of constitutional amendment, the speaker vowed to swiftly push for legislation concerning constitutional amendment procedures and will explain to the public in detail, a timetable for constitutional revision.
Kim also reiterated his will to revise the election system ahead of the general elections due next year. He expressed hopes such changes will put partisan and fandom politics to an end.
On Wednesday, the special committee on political reform began discussions on ways to revise the current election system with parties reportedly reaching consensus on the need to improve the semi-linked proportional representation system.
Under the current system, the number of parliamentary seats assigned to a party is determined by the number of single-seat constituencies the party wins in elections plus possible additional seats linked to the rate of overall vote tallies given to the party. Critics say the system has motivated major parties to create ad-hoc satellite parties ahead of elections so they would secure more proportional votes, before merging back with those sub-parties following elections.
Source: KBS World Radio