New National Assembly fails to meet the legal deadline for floor formation

New National Assembly fails to meet the legal deadline for floor formation. June. 08, 2016 07:23. by 한상준, 홍수영기자 기자alwaysj@donga.com,gaea@donga.com.

South Korea’s 20th National Assembly has failed to meet the legal deadline for electing its chairman, as expected. This means that the pledge to “observe the legal opening date” of the National Assembly turns out to be a false promise again.

On June 7, the last day for constituting floor members according to the National Assembly Act, lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties continued to argue. The oppositions, the Minjoo Party of Korea and the People’s Party, agreed to hold a free vote to decide the floor leader, while the ruling Saenuri Party disagreed to the idea. This indicates that the nation’s legislative body is likely to squeak from the beginning, as did the previous ones.

The biggest conflict in organizing floor members is over how to elect the chair. The People’s Party suggested electing the chair first. “The process is being complicated and delayed by negotiating for the chairman, vice chairman, and the committee chair all at the same time,” claimed Ahn Cheol-soo, the party’s co-chair, calling for the other two parties to make a decision on the candidates for the chairman first.

The Minjoo Party of Korea accepted Ahn’s proposal as it reached such a conclusion after a general assembly although the party's interim leader Kim Jong-in said that electing chairman by free vote would be in denial of the citizens’ will. As a result, Saenuri is now being pushed by its two main counterparts to agree on electing a chair by free votes.

Saenuri leadership is in deep concerns on how to respond to this. Saenuri floor leader Kim Do-eup said that he will hold an official meeting with the opposition, while maintaining the stance that a floor chair should be elected by bipartisan consent, following the precedents.