Seoul: National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik proposed Sunday that a national referendum to revise the Constitution be held simultaneously on the day of a snap presidential election.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the move came as South Korea is gearing up for a snap presidential election after the Constitutional Court ruled to oust former President Yoon Suk Yeol on Friday over his brief martial law declaration in December. A snap election should be held within 60 days of the court's decision to uphold the impeachment of a president.
"I propose a national referendum for a constitutional revision be held simultaneously on the day of (the upcoming) presidential election," Woo said in a hastily arranged press conference at the Assembly. "A constitutional amendment is necessary to further strengthen the pillars of the separation of powers to ensure popular sovereignty and national unity," he added.
South Korea has revised its Constitution nine times since 1948, when the South Korean government was established following the end of the 1910-45 Japanese colonial period. Past attempts to revise the most recent Constitution, which was amended in 1987 to introduce a directly elected, single five-year term presidency, have failed due to the political power divide between a powerful presidency and a fractious parliament.
In South Korea, the president or the parliament can propose a constitutional amendment, which must be approved by a two-thirds majority in the Assembly and then by a majority in a national referendum, in which more than half of eligible voters participate.