Civil Society Groups Demanding Changes to the Public Office Commission, Resignation of the Election Commission

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] Civic group leaders participating in the Preparatory Committee for the Unified New Party (Tongjunwi) have announced their resignation from the committee.

Jang Gi-pyo, co-chairman of Tongjunwi, along with five preparatory committee members, stated in a press release that "we deeply regret the incompetence of the preparatory committee members who failed to accomplish the urgent task of change and innovation, and therefore resign from Tongjunwi."

In addition to Chairman Jang, Park Joon-sik, Secretary-General of the Liberty Democratic National Alliance; Ahn Byung-yong, Head of the Organization Department of the National Integration Coalition; Ahn Hyung-hwan, Representative of the Future Citizens' Coalition; Cho Hyung-gon, Co-Executive Director of the Emergency National Assembly; and Kim Il-du, Representative of the National Guardians High School Alliance, also resigned together.

They explained their reasons for resignation, saying, "The preparatory committee members recommended by the 'Joint Meeting of Civic Group Representatives,' who acted as midwives for Tongjunwi, proposed several measures to ensure that the unified new party could demonstrate innovation. Among these, they insisted that at least half of the leadership and the nomination management committee, which would become the face of the unified new party, should be changed or supplemented. However, the Korean Party, the Conservative Party, and Kim Hyung-oh, the chairman of the nomination committee, avoided fundamental innovation, citing reasons such as 'there is no time' or 'it is unrealistic.'"

They criticized, "Regarding the composition of the leadership of the unified new party, they accepted all eight supreme council members of the Korean Party and suggested adding only two or three more members, which symbolically shows that there is no intention for change and innovation. A party that claims to form a new party by uniting factions but fails to form a new leadership and only adds two or three members to the existing party leadership cannot be called a new party."

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