Jeon Jae-su "Did the ruling party reverse its decision after expanding the number of lawmakers?"

The ruling and opposition parties are engaged in a fierce dispute over the proposal to increase the number of lawmakers by 50 in the election system reform plan. While the ruling party takes a hardline stance, stating that 'there will be no increase in the number of lawmakers,' the opposition points out that the ruling party, which had agreed to expand the number of lawmakers at the Political Reform Special Committee (Jeonggae Teukwi), has changed its position.

Jeon Jae-su, a member of the Democratic Party and the opposition's Jeonggae Teukwi secretary, said on the 21st on MBC's 'Kim Jong-bae's Focus' program, "The chairman of the Election System Advisory Committee directly under the Speaker of the National Assembly, which drafted this resolution, is also Lee Ju-young, a member of the People Power Party, and the co-chairman of the Political Relations Law Subcommittee is also from the People Power Party. It was passed here," he said.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, the two parties decided to submit three election system reform plans to the plenary committee: Plan 1 and 2, which increase the number of lawmakers by 50, and Plan 3, which keeps the number of lawmakers the same but switches to a large multi-member district system. However, the ruling party has expressed opposition to the plan to increase the number of lawmakers by 50.

Rep. Jeon said, "On March 16, the day before the Jeonggae Teukwi subcommittee meeting, there was a People Power Party caucus meeting, and since they could not set a party stance at the meeting, they decided to refer the advisory committee's plan directly under the Speaker to the plenary committee first and discuss it there. That was the result of the People Power Party caucus," he said. "That plan (the advisory committee's plan) includes the expansion of the number of lawmakers, but the People Power Party decided on it themselves and then overturned it themselves. This strange situation is happening now," he criticized.

The ruling party side drew a line, saying that "although it was discussed at the caucus meeting, there was no expansion of the number of lawmakers." However, Rep. Jeon pointed out, "There are three plans from the advisory committee directly under the Speaker, and two of those three plans include expanding the number of lawmakers. So are you saying that the caucus concluded to discuss the advisory committee's plans without even looking at the three plans? That makes no sense," he said.

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