The Democratic Party to Open National Assembly Solely on the 5th... Opposition Party's Share of Deputy Speaker Election 'Passed Over'

On the 25th, at the general meeting of elected members held at the National Assembly for the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the 21st National Assembly's first half session of the Democratic Party of Korea, Representative Park Byeong-seok and Representative Kim Sang-hee greeted the elected members. Representatives Park and Kim were unanimously nominated as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker for the first half of the 21st National Assembly. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] As the Democratic Party of Korea is showing signs of a 'sole opening on the 5th' to elect the Speaker of the National Assembly, the procedure for electing the Deputy Speaker from the opposition party is expected to be delayed. This means that the 21st National Assembly will begin with a half-formed parliament and an incomplete leadership structure.

On the 3rd, the Democratic Party held a party meeting and unanimously passed a motion to elect the Speaker and the Democratic Party's Deputy Speaker at the plenary session on the 5th. A total of 188 members, including all Democratic Party lawmakers, the Justice Party, the Open Democratic Party, the Basic Income Party, and the Transition Korea Party, requested the convening of a special session, and Yoo In-tae, Secretary-General of the National Assembly, announced the convening of the special session.

The Democratic Party has stated that if it fails to reach an agreement with the United Future Party by the 5th, it will proceed to elect Park Byeong-seok as Speaker and Kim Sang-hee as Deputy Speaker, both from their party, as decided in the party meeting. Since only a majority of the total members present is required, the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker is expected to proceed smoothly.

However, the Deputy Speaker position for the opposition party is likely to remain vacant. Although Rep. Jeong Jin-seok of the United Future Party is a strong candidate for Deputy Speaker, there has been no internal party approval or official endorsement process yet. From the Democratic Party's perspective, it is not feasible to proceed with a vote by nominating an unconfirmed candidate.

Jin Jeong-seok, a member of the United Future Party, is giving a lecture titled "Wise and Proper Lawmaker Life" at the "Cider" policy seminar held at the National Assembly on the 4th. The United Future Party named the seminar "Cider" to signify their commitment to solving social problems and issues together. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

A Democratic Party official said regarding the election of the opposition party's Deputy Speaker, "We are still negotiating with the opposition today. If the United Future Party safely enters the plenary session through negotiations, it seems possible to elect the opposition party's Deputy Speaker at that time."

Since the National Assembly Act, which specifies the method of electing the leadership, does not have a separate provision requiring the simultaneous election of two Deputy Speakers, there appears to be no legal issue in electing only the ruling party's Speaker and Deputy Speaker. A similar case occurred during the 17th National Assembly. At that time, there was a significant difference in opinion between the ruling and opposition parties regarding the distribution of Deputy Speaker positions. The ruling Uri Party, which held the majority, insisted that the Deputy Speaker positions be allocated to the negotiating groups, Uri Party and the Grand National Party, while the Grand National Party argued that since Uri Party held the Speaker position, one Deputy Speaker seat should be allocated to non-negotiating groups. After both parties remained at an impasse, only the Speaker was elected without electing Deputy Speakers at the opening of the 17th National Assembly.

Meanwhile, there is also an analysis that the Democratic Party's push to force the election of the Speaker is a strategic move to 'monopolize the standing committee chairmanships.' According to the National Assembly Act, after the Speaker is elected, each negotiating group must submit the list of standing committee members to the Speaker within two days. If they fail to do so, the Speaker can assign members to standing committees by authority. Once the standing committee composition is completed, the election of standing committee chairs can take place in the plenary session. Once the Speaker is elected, the foundation for 'monopolizing standing committee chairmanships' is established. The United Future Party has opposed opening the National Assembly without negotiations because it judged that this process could be fully realized.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.