By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff Reporter
Tension is mounting at the National Assembly as opposition parties submitted a bill that calls for a parliamentary investigation into the government's move to revise the Sejong City project amid continued feuding within the governing party.
The ruling Grand National Party's (GNP) mainstreamers loyal to President Lee Myung-bak called for convening a meeting of party lawmakers to reach a unified position on the proposal to scrap the original plan.
Rep. Chung Doo-un said he will file a request Wednesday to convene a party general meeting with his fellow lawmakers in an effort to change the party's platform on the controversial project.
"There have been enough discussions on the issue since the government proposed the revision Jan. 12," Chung said.
Floor Leader Ahn Sang-soo expressed his support, saying the party should hold the decision-making meeting if more than one tenth of the 169 GNP lawmakers, the minimum requirement for proposing such a meeting, file the request.
The calls for a united stance from the party on Sejong City follow President Lee's reaffirmation that he would push early parliamentary approval for the revision in his Lunar New Year's message, Saturday.
However, followers of former GNP Chairwoman Park Geun-hye have strongly criticized the revision, saying it will only put the two factions within the party on a collision course.
"Holding the general meeting will be no different from creating a place to fight," said Rep. Lee Kye-jin of the Park faction. "I doubt anyone will change his or her stance."
Some 50 lawmakers considered close to Park are considering boycotting the meeting, in which the majority of lawmakers are set to vote in favor of the revision.
Chances of changing the party's official stance are slim as two-thirds of the party members, or at least 113 GNP lawmakers, must vote in favor of it. Of 169 legislators, 50 to 60 belong to the Park faction.
Some fear the meeting will only result in aggravating the internal feuding in the party.
Meanwhile, a total of 113 legislators of five opposition parties, including the Democratic Party (DP) and Liberal Forward Party, submitted the bill calling for a parliamentary probe into the revision.
"We should clear up suspicions over political maneuvering, skewing polls, corporate incentives and collusion between politicians and business witnessed in the process of proposing, announcing and promoting a bill to scrap the original Sejong City project," the bill stated.
The parties claimed that businesses and universities, such as Samgsung and Korea University, had already expressed their desire to establish branches in Sejong, even before the government proposed a host of incentives to them last month.
They also argued that the government exaggerated the number of jobs that would be created by the revision plan and paid some 500 people to mobilize them for a rally supporting the revision plan.
However, prospects are dim for the passage of the bill as approval would be impossible without support from the GNP, which controls 169 seats in the 299-member legislature.