Park Hyung-jun: "Ruling Party's '180 Seats Claim' Is Not an Exaggeration... At This Rate, Even the Constitutional Amendment Blockade Line Will Be Difficult"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyemin] Park Hyung-jun, Co-Chairman of the Future United Party's Joint Election Countermeasures Committee, appealed for support on the 13th, saying, "After analyzing the weekend's situation, the ruling party's claim of securing 180 seats is not an exaggeration," and added, "In fact, if things continue like this, the Future United Party's constitutional amendment blocking line (100 seats) is also in jeopardy."

Park held a press briefing at the National Assembly that morning and said, "I feel a serious sense of crisis. Please unite your strength at the end so that the country is not unilaterally controlled by a specific force."

He emphasized, "Please block the ruling party from securing the constitutional amendment blocking line or the 180 seats they are currently talking about, which would allow them to operate the National Assembly unilaterally and exclusively. If the ruling party gains seats that threaten the constitutional amendment blocking line and can neutralize the National Assembly Advancement Act, following the appointments of Supreme Court justices, Constitutional Court justices, local governments, local councils, and education superintendents, it will bring a tremendous crisis to democracy in the Republic of Korea."

Park cited the biggest reason for the loss of support as the controversial remarks related to the Sewol ferry disaster made by Cha Myung-jin, the Future United Party candidate for Bucheon B, Gyeonggi Province. He added, "In the analysis of the situation, it strongly appeared that the 30s and 40s age group and the moderate voters are drifting away. Our party views this situation very seriously."

When asked whether he believed the ruling party's claim of 180 seats was really possible, he said, "Before the weekend, I thought it might be an exaggerated claim, but after making a strategic judgment today, it is not an exaggeration. I am telling you this because I think the public needs to know how serious the situation is."

Park pleaded, "This administration is using the COVID-19 disaster as a smokescreen to distort many failures over the past three years. If the ruling party takes 180 to 200 seats, we will lose the opportunity to correct these wrong policies. Even though the Future United Party has many shortcomings, at least please give us the power to check and balance so that we can correct this."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.