By Yi Whan-woo
In a feud with the prosecution over readjusting investigation rights the police are likely to face unfavorable circumstances as the ruling Saenuri Party emerged victorious in Wednesday’s parliamentary elections.
The conservative party won 152 of the 300 National Assembly seats and the reluctance to rewrite the law on the investigation rights will likely continue. This could sap police efforts to gain more investigative power with less intervention by the prosecution.
The long-time conflict between the two-law enforcement agencies drew keen political attention ahead of the National Assembly elections from opposing parties, including the main opposition Democratic United Party as it pledged to reform the prosecution
Police have viewed the prosecution as uncooperative in recent cases allegedly involving active and former prosecutors such as Na Kyung-won who was a former Saenuri Party lawmaker and a prosecutor.
The DUP said it would scrap the Central Investigation Bureau of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office, which the liberal lawmakers deem a politically-empowered group.
Another progressive party, the Unified Progressive Party (UPP), went further with a pledge to scrap the top prosecution office entirely.
The two liberal parties, however, failed to combine to claim over half of the parliamentary seats. The DUP managed 127 seats and the UPP scraped 13.
Minor conservative party the Liberal Forward Party, which won five National Assembly seats, also favors reform by giving the police rights for independent probes in cases that are first reported to them.
It also wants to hand over full investigation rights to the police in the long term.
“It wouldn’t have been a bad situation for the police if the DUP alone or all of the opposition parties combined had won over half of the parliamentary seats,” a police officer said.
“Now, based on the election results, we are most concerned about how the outcome on readjustment of investigation rights will turn out under the new National Assembly,” he added.
Police have been disadvantaged in the past at the National Assembly with few representatives to reflect their voices, while a number of prosecutors were successful in becoming lawmakers.
The police force were expected to gain momentum this time as 11 former police officers ran as candidates, with seven of them stepping up as independents.
However, only two of them were elected. Yoon Jae-ok, former commissioner of the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency, won as a Saenuri Party candidate at a district in Daegu.
Kim Han-pyo, former chief of Geoje Police Station in South Gyeongsang Province, was also elected in the Geoje district.
“It was a surprise to see so many former police officers running to be lawmakers and it’s too bad they lost the chance to stand for us at the National Assembly,” a police official said.