People Power Party Ratifies Special Prosecutor Bill for Election Commission at Assembly...Returns to National Assembly Formation Process

The People Power Party held a general assembly of its lawmakers on July 21 to approve the special prosecutor act on the National Election Commission, which had been agreed upon by floor leaders of both the ruling and opposition parties. In addition, the party decided to resume negotiations on the formation of standing committees in the National Assembly, a process the party had been boycotting after the unilateral election of standing committee chairpersons by the ruling party.

Jeong Jeom-sik, floor leader of the People Power Party, met with reporters immediately after the general assembly at the National Assembly that afternoon and announced, "At today's general assembly, we approved the bipartisan agreement on the procedure for recommending the special prosecutor on the Election Commission, as well as the People Power Party's return to forming the National Assembly committees."

Yonhap News

Earlier that morning, floor leaders of both parties agreed to create a National Recommendation Committee, with equal representation from each parliamentary negotiation group, regarding the special prosecutor recommendation process for the Election Commission. Of the three candidates each nominated by the Korean Bar Association and the Korean Law Professors Association, two will be recommended, and the president will appoint one of them as the special prosecutor.

However, floor leader Jeong emphasized that the agreement approved this time is limited to the right to recommend the special prosecutor. He stated, "We have yet to discuss additional matters such as the scope of the investigation, its targets, and its period. Lawmakers also stressed that we must assert our position during these further negotiations."

Accordingly, the People Power Party is expected to return to the parliamentary committee formation process. The party had been boycotting National Assembly proceedings in protest after the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally elected 11 standing committee chairpersons, including the chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee.

Floor leader Jeong added, "Although we still cannot accept the unilateral taking of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, our return to the committee formation process was also approved for now. From today, we will initiate the chairperson election procedures and plan to hold the internal party election on Thursday morning."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.