By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
Lawmakers of the governing Grand National Party (GNP) agreed Tuesday to discuss the fate of their floor leader Hong Joon-pyo again after voting on the government-proposed supplementary budget bill.
Hong offered to resign after the budget bill failed to get parliamentary approval last Thursday.
Seven GNP lawmakers who belong to the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee were absent from a session when voting took place, and their absence led to the failure to meet the quorum. The GNP has 172 seats in the 299-member legislature.
As a result of the failure, taxpayers, particularly working-class families, are expected to pay more for gas and electricity. Under the proposal, the government planned to provide 1.6 trillion won and 840 billion won in subsidies to the Korea Electric Power Corp. and Korea Gas Corp., respectively, to help them reduce operating losses linked to soaring oil prices.
In a meeting of GNP legislators at the Assembly, hard-liners called on Party Chairman Park Hee-tae to accept the resignation, claiming floor leader Hong had not handled negotiations with the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) wisely, and should therefore take responsibility for this.
But moderates said the failure to pass the budget bill last week had nothing to do with Hong's leadership skill.
They also claimed that replacing the floor leader was not good for the ruling party as it has to support President Lee Myung-bak's reform drive.
Park summed up the discourse, saying he would put Hong's resignation on the table after the supplementary budget bill was handled in the legislature.
The GNP leader, however, warned the seven lawmakers who he said intentionally missed the panel session, not to repeat the same mistake again in the future.
He said that his party will continue negotiations with the main opposition DP to narrow differences over the government-proposed supplementary budget bill.
He, however, said his party would seek a unilateral vote if negotiators fail to reach an agreement by Thursday.
Hours before Park made the remarks, DP Chairman Chung Sye-kyun told reporters the GNP should not seek an unilateral vote again.
``If the GNP seeks again to pass the bill on its own, the governing party will meet resistance,'' said Chung.
The DP leader stressed the need for inter-party dialogue and negotiations to resolve differences.
The GNP's plan to railroad the supplementary budget proposal angered rank-and-file DP lawmakers as well.
DP members said they would not discuss the old budget bill as they considered it killed last week when it failed to be passed.
Therefore, they said, leaders of the two major parties need to review a new one.
The Minor Liberty Forward Party, meanwhile, indicated that it is willing to work together with the GNP so as to pass the bill on condition that the GNP apologizes for the unilateral vote last week.