[News Terms] 'National Assembly Plenary Committee' Discussing Election System Reform

The 'National Assembly Plenary Committee' is a meeting where all members of the National Assembly (300 members) attend to review important bills before and after they are submitted to the plenary session. It covers bills related to government organization laws, taxation, or laws that impose burdens on the public, among those proposed by various committees or reviewed by them.

Legislative review in the National Assembly is mainly conducted by standing committees consisting of about 20 members. Therefore, this system was established to address the issue where members belonging to other standing committees approve related bills according to party lines without knowing the content of the bills.

Seoul Yeouido National Assembly Main Chamber. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

According to Article 63 of the National Assembly Act, the Plenary Committee can be formed if at least one-quarter of the total members request it before or after a bill is submitted to the plenary session. The chairperson is one of the vice speakers of the National Assembly appointed by the Speaker. The committee convenes with the attendance of at least one-fifth of the total members and passes resolutions with the attendance of at least one-quarter of the total members and the majority approval of those present.

Although all members attend, similar to the plenary session, the Plenary Committee can amend and decide on bills. Both the amended and original bills are submitted to the plenary session, and when the bill is finally decided in the plenary session, the amended bill passed through the Plenary Committee is given priority.

The Plenary Committee was introduced when the National Assembly Act was enacted in 1948, operated five times, then deleted, and reintroduced in February 2000. The first time it was convened after reintroduction was during the 16th National Assembly on March 2003 to handle the resolution on dispatching troops to Iraq.

From the 27th, over two weeks, the Special Committee on Political Reform's Subcommittee on Political Relations Law Improvement will hold the Plenary Committee to reach a consensus on the 'Resolution on the Improvement of the National Assembly Election System' submitted on the 17th. The election law amendment (consensus) derived from the Plenary Committee is scheduled to be finally approved at the plenary session on the 28th of next month.