Seoul Free Lunch Referendum
Encyclopedia
The Seoul Free Lunch Referendum was a referendum of allowing the free school meal
in the schools around the Seoul
Metropolitan Area on August 24th, 2011. The former mayor or Seoul Oh Se-hoon
proposed to provide a limited free meal service to the 30% of the impoverished children in Seoul despite the Democratic Party
proposed to make the free meal service to every kid in Seoul starting from younger elementary school children and gradually to middle school children. This has become the cause of Oh Se-hoon's action to make the final decision of the policy through a referendum. The referendum was later rejected due to the low voting rate of the referendum of 25.7% This voting rate is significantly lower than 33% of what Oh Se-hoon had expected. This later contributed his resignation as the mayor of Seoul.
Free school meal
A Free School Meal, provided to a child or young person during a school break, is paid for by Government. For a child to qualify for a Free School Meal, their parent or carer must be receiving particular qualifying benefits as stated by Government...
in the schools around the Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
Metropolitan Area on August 24th, 2011. The former mayor or Seoul Oh Se-hoon
Oh Se-hoon
Oh Se-hoon was the Mayor of Seoul between 2006 and August 26, 2011. On June 3, 2010, Oh was reelected as the Mayor of Seoul but resigned after losing a referendum on the Seoul Free Lunch Referendum.. Oh is a member of the Grand National Party.-Personal history:Oh was born in Seongdong-gu...
proposed to provide a limited free meal service to the 30% of the impoverished children in Seoul despite the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (South Korea)
The Democratic Party was a political party of South Korea.Formerly called the Millennium Democratic Party , or Saecheonnyeon Minju-dang , it changed its name to the present form on May 6, 2005.- History :...
proposed to make the free meal service to every kid in Seoul starting from younger elementary school children and gradually to middle school children. This has become the cause of Oh Se-hoon's action to make the final decision of the policy through a referendum. The referendum was later rejected due to the low voting rate of the referendum of 25.7% This voting rate is significantly lower than 33% of what Oh Se-hoon had expected. This later contributed his resignation as the mayor of Seoul.
Issues
- The Democratic Party called the referendum and Oh Se-hoon's action unjust because the free school lunch in Seoul for a year costs 69.5 billion won while the referendum costs around 2 billion won.
- The Grand National PartyGrand National PartyThe Grand National Party is a conservative political party in South Korea. Its Korean name, Hannara, has a double meaning as "Great National" and "Korean National." The GNP holds a majority of seats in the 18th Assembly, lasting from 2008 to 2012....
, Oh Se-hoon's political party of affiliation, consider Oh's defeat in a different perspective. The Chairperson of the GNP, Hong Jun-pyo, expressed his personal opinion that over 25% of the voting rate is enough to support the GNP for the 2012 presidential election.