YOON'S NATIONAL REFERENDUM PLAN

[Anchor Lead]

President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol is considering holding a public vote on the Democratic Party's initiative to reduce the investigative powers of the prosecution service. However, the National Election Commission says a national referendum is impossible because the current laws restricting overseas Koreans' participation have been ruled unconstitutional and have yet to be revised by the parliament.

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President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol did not say much on Wednesday about the bill on slashing prosecutors' investigative powers.

[Soundbite] Yoon Suk-yeol(President-elect) : "The party will handle this. The transition committee is going to make several announcements. Keep an eye on it."

But as the National Assembly was about to introduce the bill at the plenary session on that afternoon, Yoon's officials proposed a public vote. They said they were considering holding a public referendum on the sidelines of the local elections slated for June 1 to save costs, and would report to Yoon as such.

[Soundbite] Chang Je-won(Chief of Staff for President-elect) : "The National Assembly is in violation of the constitution using their overwhelming majority. I want to ask if this is what the public wants."

The Democratic Party says conditions for holding a public vote are not met. The constitution says though the president has the right to hold national referendums on major national policies regarding diplomacy, national defense and unification, national referendum cannot be held on any other issues just because they cause rifts between the ruling and opposition parties.

[Soundbite] Park Hong-keun(Floor Leader, Democratic Party) : "I don't know which constitution the president-elect is talking about. His statements run counter to the country's constitution and deny the separation of the three branches of the government."

In less than half-a-day, the National Election Commission provided its own answer. It says the current laws ban national referendums held without voter logs. In 2014, the Constitutional Court ruled that the current National Referendum Act is unconstitutional because it violates the suffrage rights of overseas Koreans. The court demanded that the National Assembly modify the law by 2015, but the revision bill submitted by the 21st National Assembly has yet to be passed by the standing committee.