The ruling People Power Party (PPP) on Tuesday urged the innovation chief of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) to apologize after she made remarks denounced as demeaning to old people.
Kim Eun-kyung, a law school professor who took over as the DP's innovation committee chief in June, made the remarks Sunday during a meeting with people from younger generations, quoting her son as saying it is unfair for old people to decide the future of younger generations by exercising the same one vote.
She said the son claimed that voting rights should be exercised in proportion to one's remaining life span, which means that the votes of younger generations should be given greater weight while less weight should be given to the votes of old people.
"His point was that why should those whose future is short cast the same one vote when our future is much longer," she said. "The point is very reasonable, but I told him that it cannot be done that way because one person has one vote in democratic nations."
Critics denounced her remarks as a slight on old people.
On Tuesday, the PPP urged Kim to apologize and step down and the DP to break up the innovation committee.
"We have reconfirmed the DP's demeaning and derogatory DNA towards the elderly. Society should issue a stern warning and put the brakes on those showing hostility towards the older generation just because they have different views," PPP leader Kim Gi-hyeon said in a Facebook post.
PPP Secretary General Lee Chul-gyu also said the DP has a track record of making remarks slighting old people, recalling former DP lawmaker Chung Dong-young saying in the early 2000s that those in their 60s and 70s did not need to bother to vote.
The DP has traditionally been popular among younger generations and the PPP among older people.
"Kim should look back on herself, apologize and step down," Lee said.
Some members of the DP also said Kim's remarks were inappropriate, especially for someone who is tasked with the role of turning around the party's image after a series of scandals.
"Equal voting rights regardless of age is part of our constitutional spirit. But to say voting rights should be adjusted according to remaining life expectancy is completely lacking in common sense," Rep. Lee Sang-min said in a radio interview.
The innovation committee rejected the PPP's demand for an apology, saying Kim has already made it clear that the idea of giving voting rights according to one's remaining life expectancy cannot be accepted in a democratic nation.
Source: Yonhap News Agency