Liberals select Assembly committee chairs as PPP boycott continues

Lawmakers from the liberal Democratic Party (DP) and minor parties voted to select the chairs of 11 parliamentary committees on Monday amid a legislative boycott by the conservative People Power Party (PPP).

The parliamentary Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee meets at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on Tuesday wiithout members of the People Power Party present. [YONHAP]

Lawmakers from the liberal Democratic Party (DP) and minor parties voted to select the chairs of 11 parliamentary committees on Monday amid a legislative boycott by the conservative People Power Party (PPP).

Voting for committee chiefs took place during a late evening plenary session held three days after the legal deadline for their selection had passed.

During that period, the DP and PPP could not narrow their differences over who should lead 18 standing committees for the first half of the 22nd National Assembly’s four-year term.

By proceeding with a vote to elect 11 committee chairs, the DP made good on its earlier threat to push committee appointments through the National Assembly without input from the PPP if the two parties failed to reach a compromise on the issue.

Following the vote, DP lawmakers will lead the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, House Steering Committee, Science, ICT, Broadcasting and Communications Committee and eight other standing committees.

Their appointments came five days after the DP and minor parties elected five-term DP lawmaker Woo Won-shik as the speaker of the National Assembly during the parliament’s first plenary session, which was also boycotted by the PPP.

Woo’s election on June 5 and the vote that took place during Monday’s plenary session mark the first times that the National Assembly has selected a speaker and committee chairs without the participation of the party aligned with the government.

The PPP has warned it could boycott all National Assembly sessions, including parliamentary committee meetings, if the DP also selects committee members without its consent.

While the PPP has argued that parliamentary custom dictates its lawmakers should head the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the House Steering Committee, the DP has argued that it should fill both positions in light of its overwhelming victory in the April 10 general election, when it won 175 seats in the National Assembly against the PPP’s 108.

A lawmaker from the second-largest party usually holds the chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, which approves bills to be voted on by the National Assembly, while the party aligned with the government has customarily selected the chair for the House Steering Committee, which oversees parliamentary operations and deals with the presidential office.

During Monday’s plenary session, the DP and minor parties bucked tradition by electing DP Rep. Jung Chung-rae as head of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and DP Rep. Park Chan-dae as chair of the House Steering Committee.

Although Woo was also elected in the absence of PPP lawmakers, his appointment as the National Assembly’s speaker was a foregone conclusion as the post customarily goes to a member of the party that controls the largest number of seats in the legislature.

Woo was chosen by DP members as their preferred candidate for the speaker position in an all-party meeting last month.

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]