When People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon said at a meeting of ruling and opposition party leaders that “foreigner voting rights need to be improved,” Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is reported to have responded positively, saying, “If necessary, we should improve.”
It is reported that Representative Han and Representative Lee discussed this at the meeting of the ruling and opposition parties held at the National Assembly on the 1st. In the closed meeting, Representative Han said, “This kind of sloppy voting rights granting without any residency requirements is unheard of in the world.” Representative Lee then said, “Is that so? If necessary, it should be improved.”
It is interpreted that Representative Han actively proposed this as public opinion was quite opposed to granting voting rights to foreign permanent residents in local elections. In his opening remarks before the meeting, Representative Han said, “I would like to suggest that we improve the issue of foreigners’ voting rights in local elections, which is unprecedentedly lax in the world, to the point that there are no current residency requirements before the local elections.”
Korea has been granting voting rights in local elections to foreigners who have been permanent residents for three years since the Roh Moo-hyun administration in 2005. It is analyzed that the law was revised preemptively to urge the Japanese government to grant voting rights to Koreans living in Japan. However, foreigners were not granted voting rights in Japan and China. In response, there was a strong argument within the ruling party that “it is fair that we do not grant voting rights to foreigners from countries that do not grant voting rights to our citizens.”
Representative Han also emphasized that political reform should address the immunity privileges of members of the National Assembly. Representative Han told Representative Lee in a private meeting, “Let’s reform politics, including the immunity privileges.” However, Representative Lee expressed his opposition, saying, “It is a dictatorship of the prosecution, so we cannot reform the privileges of members of the National Assembly, including the immunity privileges.”
Representative Han also said in his speech, “The people want political reform,” and “I think that regardless of political affiliation, people want political reform to give up the privileges of members of the National Assembly.” He then said, “Let’s definitely implement the privilege reform that has already been sufficiently discussed and agreed upon by the public, such as the privilege of immunity from arrest and the return of expenses during the trial period,” and insisted, “We should also discuss ways to limit the scope of the privilege of immunity that is being abused by law in cases of malicious and intentional crimes that have little connection to parliamentary activities.”
Reporter Lee Sang-heon [email protected]
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2024-09-01 18:08:37