Parties Demanded to Nominate Candidates in Democratic Way
The Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Elections yesterday urged political parties to nominate candidates for the April 13 poll in a more democratic and transparent way.
Source : Korea Times
The Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Elections yesterday urged political parties to nominate candidates for the April 13 poll in a more democratic and transparent way.
The civic movement unveiled ``comprehensive measures for the democratic nomination of candidates for the parliamentary elections'' in a press conference.
The alliance, composed of about 470 civic groups called on the ruling and opposition parties not to nominate politicians on the blacklist of corrupt and tainted figures.
The move followed the citizens' alliance publication of a blacklist of 66 ``corrupt'' and ``tainted'' lawmakers and politicians on Jan. 14. The alliance released an additional list of 47 last week.
``We came up with guidelines on the nomination of candidates to demand that political parties should avoid choosing unqualified politicians as candidates,'' an alliance representative said.
Under the guidelines, the civic movement requested political parties place their priority on the reform-minded character and political capabilities of persons nominated.
The alliance stressed that candidates must be able to push for social and political reforms, regardless of regional background, scholastic career, or connections with the party leadership.
It warned that political parties should not make nominations based on ``back-room'' deals and factional sharing of candidacies among several ``bosses'' in the party leadership.
The alliance also called on political parties to give up attempts to nominate wealthy politicians as candidates in return for financial contributions.
It said women must be given more opportunities to run for seats in the National Assembly, recommending political parties set aside 30 percent of proportional representation seats for female politicians.
The alliance of civic groups suggested a large number of outside figures be allowed to participate in the process of selecting candidates in order to ensure fairness and transparency in screening.
The alliance threatened to stage large-scale campaigns against political parties and their candidates if they fail to meet the guidelines for fair and transparent nomination.
The civic watchdog sent the guidelines to three major political parties later in the day.
The Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), one of the nation's key civic groups, also held a seminar at its headquarters in downtown Seoul to aimed at overcoming bad practices in nominating candidates.
Participants in the seminar discussed ways of reforming the undemocratic process.
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