 |
| National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa, center, meets with Rep. Kim Moo-sung, chairman of the ruling Saenuri Party, right, and Rep. Moon Jae-in, leader of the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD), for talks on redrawing the electoral map for the general election in April next year at his office in the National Assembly, Tuesday. Chung vowed to put constituency redrawing to an Assembly vote if the rival parties fail to reach an agreement by the end of the year. / Yonhap |
By Kim Hyo-jin
National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa vowed Tuesday to exercise his authority in order to ensure that a proposed plan for redrawing parliamentary constituency boundaries will be put to a vote, if the rival parties fail to reach an agreement on the issue before the end of the year.
"As the current situation could harm next year's general election, I intend to use my authority," Chung told reporters. "Action will be taken if the matter becomes regarded as in a state of legislative emergency as it will be around the end of the year."
The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) have been at odds for months over the redrawing of constituency boundaries due to their differences on the number of parliamentary seats allocated for rural areas and the number of lawmakers to be elected through proportional representation.
Despite the partisan bickering, the process for candidate registration for the elections began, Tuesday.
Chung did not provide a precise date on which he may take action, but it is thought to be Dec. 28, which would ensure that the redrawn constituencies would become established at the start of the New Year, ruling party officials said.
According to Clause 85 of the National Assembly Act, the speaker can put a bill to a vote in a plenary session in the event of a natural disaster, a state of emergency or through an agreement between the ruling and opposition camps. Chung hinted that he may interpret the current situation as a "state of emergency."
The ruling Saenuri Party praised the move, claiming that Dec. 28 should be the final deadline.
"We hope to avoid a state of emergency by passing the Election Law revision including a new electoral constituency plan in the Assembly on Dec. 28," said Kim Jung-hoon, the party's chief policymaker.
However, the NPAD responded negatively and called for the speaker's plan to be withdrawn.
"It is a legislative tradition that the electoral map should be redrawn based on an agreement reached between the rival parties. It is a leap of logic to claim that the situation can be viewed as a state emergency," said the NPAD's floor leader Rep. Lee Jong-kul said during a party meeting.
Meanwhile, Cheong Wa Dae urged the Assembly speaker to call a vote on not only the proposed redrawing of constituency boundaries but also a set of pending bills for economic and labor reform.
President Park Geun-hye has repeatedly criticized the political parties for delays in passing the bills, saying their inaction is causing havoc to the government's efforts to revive the economy.
The current constituency map is scheduled to become null and void from next year in accordance with a ruling from the Constitutional Court last year.
In October last year, the court concluded that the electoral map should be redrawn to address unequal representation and that the ratio of the most populous electoral districts to the least populous must be lower than two to one. The current ratio is three to one.
Based on this ruling, an independent electoral redistricting committee under the National Election Commission has proposed redrawing the current electoral map by reducing the number of parliamentary seats in less-populated regions.
But this drew fierce opposition from representatives of rural areas in North Gyeongsang Province and other remote areas in southern parts of the country.
Facing intensifying dissent, the rival parties have so far only agreed on increasing the number of elected seats to avoid merging or scrapping rural constituencies while maintaining the current 300-seat Assembly.
