Oh Se-hoon Joins Opposition Criticism... "Democrats' Exclusive Control of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, Farewell to Public Sentiment"

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon has repeatedly voiced criticism against the opposition party, the Democratic Party of Korea. Regarding the Democratic Party's attempt to forcibly elect the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, he called it a 'farewell to public sentiment,' and criticized the party's amendment to the party constitution adjusting the resignation deadline for the party leader as the 'completion of the Lee Jae-myung Party.'

On the 10th, Mayor Oh posted on Facebook titled "The legislative dictatorship of the super-majority opposition party is a prelude to a farewell to public sentiment." He explained, "The convention that the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee is held by a minority party rather than the majority party is a great tradition of the National Assembly for compromise politics," adding, "Even when the Democratic Party shrank to 81 seats in the 18th general election held in 2008, the chairman of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee was held by the Democratic Party."

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Mayor Oh claims that the Democratic Party is breaking this tradition. He emphasized, "However, the Democratic Party is ignoring all such traditions and, following the 21st National Assembly during the Moon Jae-in administration, is now trying to monopolize the Speaker of the National Assembly, the Chair of the Steering Committee, and the Chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee," adding, "It appears to be an intention to carry out legislative dictatorship and use the National Assembly as a tool to pave the presidential election path for Leader Lee Jae-myung."

Mayor Oh explained, "The destination this path points to is clear: a farewell to public sentiment," and added, "The Democratic Party also ran solo in the same way in 2020 but was struck by public sentiment in the 2021 by-elections and the 2022 presidential election."

Furthermore, Mayor Oh sharpened his criticism of the Democratic Party's amendment to the party constitution. On the same day in the morning, the Democratic Party's Supreme Council resolved to amend the party constitution and regulations regarding the resignation deadline of the party leader. The current party constitution stipulates that if the party leader or a supreme council member runs for president, they must resign one year before the election date. The amendment includes the provision that 'the party affairs committee may decide the resignation deadline of a leader intending to run for president if there are considerable or special reasons.' This was interpreted as a move to support Leader Lee’s reappointment as party leader and his presidential bid.

Regarding this, Mayor Oh said, "Our politics has regressed again. Such blatant rule changes for one person did not even happen during the era of the three Kims, who were called the imperial presidents," adding, "We changed the person in the general election, and now the rules have been altered to suit tastes, so this is the completion of the Lee Jae-myung Party."

He continued, "If the defendant Lee Jae-myung is sentenced guilty, how do they intend to handle that risk? Do they not care about the people at all?" and added, "No matter how much politics these days only targets their support base, the disregard for the people is going too far."

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