Seungwon Park, Gwangmyeong Mayoral Candidate: "Pushing to Enact the Nation's First Citizens' Assembly Ordinance"

Seungwon Park Signs Policy Agreement with Gwangmyeong Citizens' Assembly Forum
Promises Institutionalization to Make Gwangmyeong a Leading City of Civic Sovereignty

Seungwon Park, mayoral candidate for Gwangmyeong, signed a policy agreement with the Gwangmyeong Citizens' Assembly Forum on the 18th and expressed his intention to make Gwangmyeong a leading city of civic sovereignty and deliberative democracy.

Seungwon Park, preliminary candidate for mayor of Gwangmyeong (center), is signing a policy agreement with the Gwangmyeong Citizens' Council Forum on the 18th. Photo provided by preliminary candidate Seungwon Park

This agreement was established with the aim of proactively introducing and experimenting with the Citizens' Assembly system—which is gaining attention as a new direction for democracy in Korea—in Gwangmyeong, and to jointly promote its institutionalization and nationwide expansion in the future.

The agreement includes: △enactment and operation of a local ordinance for the Citizens' Assembly in Gwangmyeong △active promotion of the Citizens' Assembly regional model △efforts to enact the 'Citizens' Assembly Act' through nationwide cooperation and solidarity.

At the signing ceremony, candidate Park stated, "I believe Gwangmyeong could become the first city in Korea to enact an ordinance for the Citizens' Assembly," and added, "I will do my utmost to ensure that Gwangmyeong creates a new model of democracy in the era of civic sovereignty."

He continued, "Based on the experience of Gwangmyeong's long-standing 500-person roundtable discussions, I will develop a more systematic and concrete Citizens' Assembly ordinance."

This agreement is in line with the values of civic sovereignty, deliberative democracy, and citizen-participatory administration that candidate Park has consistently emphasized. Gwangmyeong has already been conducting experiments to make citizens the main agents of municipal governance, through initiatives such as the 500-person roundtable discussions, resident autonomy councils, and citizen-participatory policy discussion structures.

Candidate Park emphasized, "Challenges of our time, such as the climate crisis, low birth rate and aging population, and local extinction, cannot be solved by administration alone. A new democracy that finds solutions through collective intelligence and public discussion of citizens is needed. We will further advance civic sovereignty democracy in Gwangmyeong and create a new model of civic sovereignty that will draw nationwide attention."

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