Parties Seek to Hold Election of Assembly Speaker Friday
By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Opposition parties are divided over the governing Grand National Party (GNP)'s plan to elect the new National Assembly speaker on Friday. The GNP Wednesday called for the convening of a plenary Assembly session to conduct the election.
The opposition have boycotted the opening of the legislature, whose four-year term began May 30, demanding that the government renegotiate a deal to resume beef imports from the United States.
A Pro-Park Geun-hye alliance, which has 13 seats in the 299-member Assembly, said they are willing to work closely with the GNP to move the election forward.
Rep. Park Jong-keun of the alliance told reporters, ``Working toward the inauguration of the Assembly is one thing, and selecting the parliamentary leadership is another. Our group is fully prepared to collaborate with the GNP to make the speaker election happen.''
The group was created before the April 9 elections by lawmakers and politicians who were close to former GNP Chairwoman Park, but were eliminated from the party's ticket. Their political orientation is, therefore, almost identical with the conservative ruling party.
Park Jong-keun made the comments after the ruling party's plan to move on the election today was made public.
GNP floor leader Hong Joon-pyo said Tuesday he would ask the Liberty Forward Party (LFP) and other minor opposition parties, whose stance on the inauguration of the legislature is not as hardcore as two other parties, the main opposition United Democratic Party (UDP) and the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), to hold the election.
Sources said the GNP might make it happen as scheduled, even though the opposition parties disagree with the plan.
Hong's comment angered the UDP. Rep. Cho Jeong-sik said the ruling party, which controls 153 Assembly seats, was attempting to take advantage of its numerical advantage in the legislature to move the election forward, without making an effort to get a consensus from the opposition.
The DLP called the GNP's plan that of a ``dictatorship.''
The LFP, which had been sympathetic with the GNP's endeavor to move the Assembly forward, also showed skepticism about the plan, albeit giving no harsh remarks on it.
Avoiding a direct comment on the issue, the Renewal of Korea Party said a bill to monitor and prevent the spread of infectious diseases in cattle should be resolved first.
Facing the opposition's joint attack against the possible speaker election, GNP floor leader Hong said he didn't mean to make the legislature move on his remarks, but to appeal to the opposition parties to work together in selecting the speaker first.
GNP spokeswoman Cho Yoon-sun pressed UDP leaders to prevent a showdown, claiming the main opposition party had lost its cause and was wasting time, and so therefore should cooperate without any conditions.