Speaker Chung Eui-hwa announces he will not run for the general assembly

Speaker Chung Eui-hwa announces he will not run for the general assembly. January. 26, 2016 07:56. by 강경석기자 coolup@donga.com. National Assembly Speaker Chung Eui-hwa announced that he will not be running for the 20th general elections. He has recently been in conflict with the Saenuri party regarding the amendment of the National Assembly Act.

Chung summoned an unscheduled press conference at Monday 2 p.m., and declared his non-candidacy at the upcoming general elections, saying that “I declare as such to stop any further controversy on my political intention. I will not run in my own district Busan nor in other districts such as the Honam area. Please stop your attempts to shake me around.” His seemed to deny accusations by some critics who connect his tepid attitude toward the suggested bill with his political intentions. Park Hyung-jun, secretary general of the National Assembly also made it clear in his press release that he “has no intention to run for the upcoming general elections”, and that he will support Mr. Chung.

The Speaker has once again expressed a veto for the proposal for revision suggested by the ruling party for being “risky and aggressive, and intended to allow dominance by the ruling party.” For the arbitration plan for requirements for expedited passing of agenda, he suggested reducing the term of review to 75 days from the current maximum of 330 days. The proposal also added a condition to prevent abusing of the system to limit the applicable agenda to those "of serious threat to the safety of the citizens, or obviously causing financial, economic crisis of the nation." Moreover, a new suggestion was made to automatically transfer a bill pending for 90 days at the legislative and judiciary committee to a regular session and to allow an extension for 60 days upon agreement by the committee head and secretaries of both parties or upon request by the majority of the committee members.

Lawmaker Kwon Sung-dong, who presented the bill, said that he was “sorry to hear that the bill is seen as an act to allow dominance of the ruling party,” and that “the speaker is trying to rule the National Assembly by giving himself an authority to judge applicable agenda.” If the speaker and the ruling party fail to reach an agreement, the bill seems unlikely to be passed even at the regular session scheduled on the 29th.