The ruling and opposition parties agreed to handle a plan for a parliamentary investigation to uncover the truth behind the shortage of ballot papers in the June 3 local elections at a plenary session on the 18th. The National Assembly plans to investigate the election commission to pursue institutional improvements and measures to prevent a recurrence.
Cheon Jun-ho, senior deputy floor leader for operations of the Democratic Party of Korea, and Kim Seung-soo, senior deputy floor leader for operations of the People Power Party, met at the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 16th to discuss a parliamentary investigation into the ballot paper shortage. The official name of the investigation is "Parliamentary investigation to uncover the truth about the infringement of citizens' suffrage due to the ballot paper shortage and other issues and to reform election management."
The parliamentary investigation will run for a total of 45 days and may be extended if additional inquiry is needed. Those surveyed are the National Election Commission and local election commissions at all levels. However, it allows for calling civil servants from the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and local governments involved in elections as witnesses. The police are excluded from those surveyed.
The People Power Party will chair the special committee on the parliamentary investigation. The committee will have 18 members: nine from the Democratic Party, seven from the People Power Party, and two from non-negotiating groups. The commissioners from the non-negotiating groups will be appointed by National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik.
Cheon, the senior deputy floor leader, said, "The ruling and opposition parties have reached an agreement to proceed with a parliamentary investigation with the aim of swiftly uncovering the truth about the infringement of citizens' suffrage caused by the ballot paper shortage and laying the groundwork for a sweeping reform of the election commission."