The 'National Initiative Constitutional Amendment' Vote Fails in the National Assembly Plenary Session... Automatically Discarded

On the 8th, at the 4th plenary session of the 377th National Assembly (extraordinary session) held in the main chamber of the National Assembly, the "Amendment to the Constitution of the Republic of Korea" was discarded due to the failure of the vote caused by insufficient quorum, and the members who participated in the vote are leaving. Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hye-won] On the 8th, the National Assembly held a plenary session and put the constitutional amendment bill on the national initiative system, proposed by 148 lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties, to a vote, but the vote was not established due to a lack of quorum. The amendment bill will be automatically discarded due to the failure of the vote.

Speaker Moon Hee-sang declared the vote on the 'one-point constitutional amendment bill' invalid due to insufficient quorum during the plenary session that afternoon. In the vote, 118 members from the Democratic Party of Korea and the Justice Party participated, while members of the United Future Party did not attend. The number of voting members did not reach the required quorum of two-thirds of the total members (194).

Earlier, the constitutional amendment bill on the national initiative system, promoted by the 'National Initiative Constitutional Amendment Coalition' (Gaehyeon Yeondae), which consists of 25 civic groups including the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice, the Korea Constitutional Association, the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions, and People's Solidarity for Participatory Democracy, was proposed on March 6 of this year with the participation of 148 lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties.

Article 128, Paragraph 1 of the Constitution stipulates that "constitutional amendments shall be proposed by a majority of the total members of the National Assembly or by the President."

The amendment bill adds "one million voters with the right to vote in National Assembly elections" as proposers. This allows constitutional amendments to be pursued if a certain number of citizens desire it.

The Constitution stipulates that the amendment bill must be resolved within 60 days after its announcement. As the ruling and opposition parties failed to agree on the plenary session schedule, Speaker Moon convened the plenary session ex officio on this day, one day before the resolution deadline (May 9).

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