'Changing No-Nomination Policy' Criticized Within Party... Yuin Tae Says "An Act Deserving Divine Punishment"

Decision to Amend Party Constitution with Overwhelming 86.64% Approval

Yoo In-tae, Former Secretary General of the National Assembly / Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suwan] As the Democratic Party of Korea decided to amend its party constitution to nominate candidates for next year's Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections through a vote of all party members, former National Assembly Secretary-General Yuin Tae, who served three terms (14th, 17th, and 19th National Assembly), criticized the move as "an action without justification."

On the 2nd, Yuin appeared on SBS's 'Jooyoungjin's News Briefing' and pointed out, "They flipped the party constitution like turning over their hand at this point."

Yuin said, "Even if there are practically unavoidable aspects, politics is about justification rather than practicality," adding, "At the very least, they should have followed the party constitution this one time and then amended it afterward if they thought, 'Ah, this really won't work...'"

He also claimed there was no debate when the party constitution was made. He said, "I was an incumbent lawmaker when the constitution was made, but there was no debate at that time. No one raised any objections," and pointed out, "Because the party was in trouble, the justification was very strong. Since the opposing party was not supposed to field candidates, no one objected."

He further criticized, "It could have been an opportunity to broaden the scope of the coalition, but setting the constitution without any objections and never implementing it even once, then flipping it like this is an action without justification."

When asked about the reason behind Representative Lee Nak-yeon's decision, he emphasized, "During the April 15 general election, the opposition created a proportional satellite party, and we said it was 'an act deserving of divine punishment,' but the ruling party did the same. Flipping the party constitution and regulations this time is the same."

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party of Korea has amended its party constitution and decided to field candidates in the Seoul and Busan mayoral by-elections scheduled for April next year.

On the day, Choi In-ho, the Democratic Party's chief spokesperson, announced that 86.64% of party members voted in favor of amending the party constitution and nominating candidates in the by-elections during the two-day vote held on the 31st of last month and the 1st of this month.

Accordingly, the Democratic Party plans to proceed with the party constitution amendment process by adding an exception clause to the existing party constitution, which states, "If an elected official belonging to the party loses their position due to a serious wrongdoing such as corruption, the party will not recommend a candidate for the by-election in that electoral district."

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