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NPAD surrenders to criticism of ‘assembly protecting lawmaker’

NPAD surrenders to criticism of ‘assembly protecting lawmaker’

Posted August. 13, 2015 07:28,   

한국어

The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy decided on Wednesday to take part in deliberation of a bill to approve arrest of its lawmaker Park Ki-choon, who is suspected of taking political funds. The party thus surrendered to public pressure criticizing that “It seeks to run a parliament to protect its lawmaker.” As a result, deputy floor leaders of the ruling and opposition parties held a meeting and agreed to hold a plenary session of the National Assembly at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

Yoo Eun-hye, the party’s spokesperson, said it reconfirmed the principle that “A parliament meant for protection of a lawmaker is not allowed” at an onsite meeting of its supreme council at Imjingak, Paju, Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday. Its floor leader Lee Jong-geol also said the party agreed on this principle. At the closed meeting, some pointed out that “Public opinions are way very bad about the party’s lukewarm response to the bill to approve arrest.”

However, Yoo said, “Discussions have not been held over whether the party will adopt the bill as its party platform, or allow its lawmakers to freely vote at their own discretion.”

A bill to approve arrest of a lawmaker gets approved with a majority vote with a majority of lawmakers participating in the vote. It is uncertain how many lawmakers will take part in the plenary session of the assembly, since many lawmakers of both the ruling and opposition parties are on overseas business trips.

Since a vote on a bill to approve a lawmaker’s arrest is conducted as anonymous vote, unexpected outcome could occur. Some at NPAD are sympathetic towards Rep. Park, saying since Park already left the party and declared that he would not run in next year’s general elections, it would be overly cruel to pass the bill to approve investigation of him in custody. Park is a lawmaker with extensive human networks with both the ruling and opposition party lawmakers. For this reason, some predict that the bill may be voted down at a preliminary session of the National Assembly.



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