Opposition-led Assembly passes special probe bill on Marine’s death

Jul 05, 2024, 10:27 am

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Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP) protest against National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik after Woo asks them to end their filibuster at a plenary session on July 4, 2024./ Photographed by Song Eui-joo

AsiaToday reporter Woo Seung-joon

The opposition-controlled 22nd National Assembly passed a contentious bill on Thursday, mandating a special counsel probe into allegations surrounding the death of a Marine. It has been 37 days since the bill was scrapped at the 21st National Assembly.

The standoff between rival political parties over the bill is worsening. The ruling People Power Party (PPP) announced that they will not attend the opening ceremony of the new National Assembly to be held on Friday. President Yoon Suk-yeol has also decided not to attend. The press office of the National Assembly said that the opening ceremony will be postponed.

Of the 190 lawmakers present, 189 voted in favor of the bill, while one was against it, as members of the ruling PPP boycotted the proceedings in protest.

The passage of the bill led to conflicts between the ruling and opposition parties. For instance, National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik ignored requests for arbitration by the People Power Party. Woo proposed the bill to the plenary session despite the ruling PPP’s opposition on the previous day, and forced to end the PPP’s filibuster at the plenary session. The filibuster is an act in which a minority party uses legal means to prevent the majority from gaining the upper hand in the National Assembly.

Ahead of the plenary session, the main opposition DP hinted at passing the bill. “The special counsel bill on Marine’s death was introduced to the plenary session yesterday,” DP floor leader Park Chan-dae said. “The July 19th is the first anniversary of the death of Cpl. Chae Su-geun. We need to relieve his mother’s resentment.”

The PPP decided not to attend the opening ceremony in protest of the opposition party’s unilateral passage of the bill. “Without reflection and changes of attitude of the Democratic Party and the National Assembly Speaker, we clearly state that the PPP cannot attend the opening ceremony originally scheduled for Friday,” PPP floor leader Choo Kyung-ho said. “In the reality of attempting the impeach the prosecutor investigating former DP leader Lee Jae-myung, the opening ceremony of the National Assembly is meaningless,” he said.

The DP, which passed the special counsel probe bill over Marine’s death, plans to pass four contentious media bills in the extraordinary session of the National Assembly in July, aimed at reducing the government’s power over public broadcasters amid protest from the ruling party. The DP also plans to conduct a parliamentary investigation into the Marine’s death case as well as a probe into the impeachment of four prosecutors in charge of the investigation of former DP leader Lee Jae-myung.

#DP #National Assembly #PPP