Jang Dong-hyuk: "If the '50-member increase' in lawmakers is not withdrawn, the ruling party's full committee will not attend"

Amid discussions between the ruling and opposition parties on whether to increase the number of lawmakers by 50 as part of the election system reform, the ruling party has expressed its intention to boycott the plenary committee meeting if the '50-member increase in the number of lawmakers' is not withdrawn at the Political Reform Special Committee (Jeonggae Teukwi) plenary session.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Jang Dong-hyeok, a member of the National Assembly's Political Reform Special Committee and the floor spokesperson for the People Power Party, said on the 21st on MBC's "Kim Jong-bae's Focus" that "People Power Party opposes increasing the number of lawmakers first without gaining public consent."

Earlier, the two parties agreed in the Political Reform Special Committee subcommittee to submit three election reform proposals to the plenary committee: Plan 1 and 2, which increase the number of lawmakers by 50, and Plan 3, which keeps the number of lawmakers the same but switches to a large multi-member district system. Although the subcommittee passed the proposals, they must pass the Political Reform Special Committee plenary session to proceed to the plenary committee discussion.

Accordingly, the People Power Party proposes withdrawing the 50-member increase at the plenary session and instead submitting a plan that does not increase the number of seats, such as the single-member district system or the regional/proportional mixed-member proportional representation system, as Plan 1.

In response to the host's question, "Didn't the People Power Party also participate in the vote when the three reform plans increasing the number of lawmakers by 50 passed the subcommittee?" he said, "This was not a party stance but rather about selecting three proposals that could still be discussed at the plenary committee and submitting them from the Political Reform Special Committee. Among these, the proposals that could be discussed most objectively were those put forward by the advisory committee under the Speaker of the National Assembly, so we centered on those. Since these were candidate proposals, not final decisions, we attended the vote."

He added, "However, since the plans to increase the number of lawmakers are listed as Plan 1 and 2, and if the single-member district system is chosen afterward, it might appear as if the People Power Party agrees to increasing the number of lawmakers. Therefore, we have clearly stated that 'there will be absolutely no increase in the number of lawmakers.'"