The National Assembly Steering Committee on the 18th approved a plan to form the Special Committee on Political Reform. With the legal deadline (Dec. 5) for drawing local election districts for the June 3 election already passed, related discussions are expected to ramp up early next year.
The Steering Committee held a full meeting this morning, introduced the resolution to form the special committee, and approved it. The special committee will have 18 members: nine from the Democratic Party of Korea, eight from the People Power Party, and one from non-negotiation groups. The seat for the non-negotiation group is decided by the National Assembly speaker, but the Rebuilding Korea Party, which has the most seats among the four minor parties, is likely to join. The committee's term runs until before the June 3 local elections next year.
The special committee plans to focus on discussions over drawing local election districts. Under the Public Official Election Act, districts for the local elections to be held on June 3 next year were supposed to be finalized by Dec. 5 (180 days before election day), but the legal deadline was missed. Even if the plan to form the special committee passes at the plenary session next week and the committee launches, substantive discussions on redistricting are expected to begin in earnest only early next year.
Meanwhile, non-negotiation groups protested the formation of the committee. Shin Jang-sik of the Rebuilding Korea Party said, "Even proportionally by party seats, composing it with nine for the ruling party, seven for the People Power Party, and two for non-negotiation groups is a plan that prevents the ruling party from exceeding half while accurately reflecting the people's will." Yoon Jong-o of The Progressive Party also said, "When setting the rules of the game, there must be a basic structure that allows hearing the intentions of the parties participating in the game."
In response, Moon Jin-seok of the Democratic Party, the ruling party's secretary on the committee, said, "We will go through procedures to sufficiently gather the opinions of minor parties during the discussion process."