CV NEWS FEED // In order to promote political awareness and involvement among the faithful, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Korea (CBCK) conducted a survey of the major political parties set to take part in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
According to an April 2 AsiaNews report, the CBCK sent a 43-item questionnaire regarding the country’s most pressing policy issues, including “employment, national reconciliation, social welfare, bioethics, environmental protection, women, justice, peace, and youth.”
Three out of the four political parties jockeying for parliamentary seats at the fast-approaching April 10 elections agreed to take part in the survey: the People Power Party (PPP), the Democratic Party of Korea (DP), and the Green Party Korea (GPK).
The deadline to submit a response was March 28, the official start of South Korea’s fourteen-day campaign period.
“Some items are very specific,” AsiaNews noted, listing politically charged topics such as the death penalty, possible expansion of the lifespan for nuclear power plants, and the possibility of establishing a special commission to investigate the tragic Itaewon crowd crush that resulted in the deaths of at least 158 people.
With respect to the death penalty, the DP and GBK parties reported that they “strongly agreed” to abolishing the practice, while the PPP expressed “a much more cautious position.” PPP also took the opposite position with respect to nuclear power plants, expressing a desire to expand. Both opposition parties expressed a desire to investigate the Itaewon crowd crush.
According to a report published by the Stimson Center on April 4, the parliamentary elections “will effectively help or hinder the remaining three years of the Yoon government, depending on its outcome.”
A member of Korea’s conservative PPP, Yoon Suk Yeol took office in March, 2022, unseating the former DP leader by a narrow margin of 0.8%. As the Stimson report notes, the Yoon government currently faces declining approval ratings due to a variety of domestic partisan policy issues, such as gender inequality, low birth rate, a rise in defamation cases against local press, and an increasingly competitive housing market.
As it stands, the DP currently holds 180 out of the 300 available seats in parliament, giving Yoon’s opposition an absolute majority in the National Assembly.
“Pressure is on the conservative ruling [PPP] to win back as many seats as possible,” the report stated, adding:
A PPP failure in this general election would hamper Yoon’s momentum moving forward […], and another opposition-controlled parliament would present challenges to both Yoon in the remaining three years of his presidency and the PPP in seeing another conservative president elected in 2027.
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Author: Madalaine Elhabbal
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