The People Power Party is surveying its members' preferred standing committees to form the chamber. Although the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally elected 11 standing committee chairs and the People Power Party is strongly protesting, depending on the outcome of the general meeting of lawmakers on the 2nd, the chamber could begin to be formed as early as next week.
According to the political bloc on the 1st, the People Power Party's floor leadership gathered opinions from its members that day on assigning standing committees to form the chamber. Floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik said, "We accepted (standing committee) assignment applications in May, and now we are at the stage of gathering lawmakers' opinions."
A floor leadership official explained, "We have continued fine-tuning lawmakers' preferred standing committees over the past few weeks," adding, "The fact that the chief deputy floor leader contacted lawmakers today is in the same vein."
The People Power Party plans to hold a general meeting of lawmakers on the afternoon of the 2nd to discuss how to fight the Democratic Party's unilateral election of 11 standing committee chairs. It has neither elected the seven standing committee chairs allocated by the Democratic Party nor finalized the assignment of its members to committees.
But behind the scenes, work to form the chamber appears to be moving forward little by little. Specific names are circulating in political circles over who will serve as opposition party whips on 18 standing committees, including the 11 chaired by the Democratic Party, and the same goes for the seven chairs allotted to the People Power Party. However, unlike the Democratic Party, where the floor leader designates the standing committee chair, the People Power Party must hold elections, so even at the earliest, they can be elected next week.
The watershed for forming the chamber is the general meeting of lawmakers scheduled for the 2nd. If calls grow at the meeting for a hard-line response to the Democratic Party's solo drive, the chamber's formation is likely to be delayed regardless of the earlier opinion gathering on committee assignments. A floor leadership official said, "The collection of opinions on committee assignments and considerations for the group of whips ultimately depend on the outcome of the general meeting of lawmakers."
Still, there is considerable fatigue within the party over hard-line fights. A senior lawmaker said, "If it will end with us receiving seven standing committee chairs anyway, I don't see the point of unnecessary fights," adding, "From the start, it would have been better to forgo the Legislation and Judiciary Committee chair and secure important chairs like the National Policy Committee."