Six standing committee chairs were elected at the National Assembly's plenary session on Thursday as the main opposition People Power Party ended its boycott in the parliament.
Most of those elected to chair committees for the next two years are three-term lawmakers of the People Power Party, except for four-term Rep. Yu Eui-dong, who will lead the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee.
Rep. Kim Hee-jung will head the Education Committee; Rep. Song Seog-jun will chair the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee; and Rep. Kim Sung-won will helm the Trade, Industry, Energy, SMEs and Startups Committee.
The Health and Welfare Committee chair will go to Rep. Lee Man-hee, while the chair for the Intelligence Committee will be assumed by Rep. Lee Yang-soo.
All of the six new chairs won over 230 votes in the 299-member National Assembly.
This came as the main opposition party on Thursday confirmed a list of their lawmakers as chairs of standing committees, moving to normalize parliamentary operations after nearly two months. The party members are set to lead seven committees.
Rep. Lim Lee-ja, who has chaired the Strategy and Finance Committee for the past year, declined to assume the leadership of the Gender Equality and Family Committee hours after the party lawmakers approved her in the post, according to Rep. Choi Soo-jin of the People Power Party.
As a result, the Gender Equality Committee chair election was not held Thursday.
Under the People Power Party's internal regulations, committee chair candidates are approved by party lawmakers. In the Democratic Party of Korea, only the floor leader has the authority to choose committee chair candidates.
Yu was the only chair to have competed for the role Thursday. He narrowly beat Rep. Kim Jung-jae to clinch the chair post in a 49-48 vote at a general assembly of the People Power Party lawmakers Thursday morning. The others were sole candidates and were approved by party lawmakers without the need for a vote.
The People Power Party also completed standing committee assignments, except for the Gender Equality and Family Committee, later on Thursday.
On June 30, the ruling Democratic Party pushed ahead with its move to elect 11 of its lawmakers as the chairs of 10 standing committees and the Special Committee on Budgets and Accounts. The election took place without the consent of the People Power Party, prompting it to boycott future sessions until its requirements were met.
The People Power Party has slammed the National Assembly for its unilateral decision to elect ruling party lawmaker Rep. Seo Young-kyo as chair of the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, considered one of the most powerful of the 17 standing committees. Democratic Party lawmakers hold a majority in parliament, meaning they can push through most tabled bills.
People Power Party whip Rep. Jeong Jeom-sig has claimed that the main opposition's failure to claim the chair post means the parliament is losing its power to keep the administration in check.
After over 50 days of parliamentary paralysis, however, the People Power Party announced plans to end its boycott on Tuesday after reaching a bipartisan agreement on launching a special counsel investigation into the election authorities for mismanagement of the June local elections.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
