Democratic Party, Will They Sweep the Remaining 7 Standing Committee Chairmanships Too?

Opposition, Higher Possibility of Rechecking Tax Revenue Estimates by the Planning and Finance Committee
Government, Administrative Impact Including Corporate Support Unavoidable

As the Democratic Party of Korea unilaterally elected the chairpersons of 11 standing committees in the National Assembly, there is speculation that they may also take all of the remaining seven standing committees reserved for the ruling party. If the People Power Party continues to refuse negotiations on the distribution of committee chairmanships, it is expected that the Speaker of the National Assembly may finalize the composition of the remaining committees to expedite the formation of the Assembly.

According to political circles on the 11th, the Democratic Party plans to elect all seven remaining standing committee chairpersons as early as this week. It is known that the Democratic Party has already nominated candidates for all 18 standing committee chairpersons. Although the distribution was limited to '11 to 7' based on the number of seats the day before, if the People Power Party continues to avoid negotiations, the Democratic Party intends to complete the formation of the Assembly by taking the remaining seven committees as their share.

The People Power Party is considering a full boycott of the remaining committees as well. Currently, the seven committees allocated to the People Power Party are the Strategy and Finance Committee, the Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee, the Political Affairs Committee, the Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, the National Defense Committee, the Intelligence Committee, and the Women and Family Committee. As negotiations between the ruling and opposition parties stalled, the Democratic Party distributed the committees. A Democratic Party official explained in a phone call, "The ruling party actively did not engage in negotiations, so the distribution was made according to precedent."

Meeting between Chu Kyung-ho and Park Chan-dae with the Speaker of the National Assembly over the organization of the National Assembly

(Seoul=Yonhap News) Reporter Kim Joo-hyung = On the afternoon of the 10th, Speaker Woo Won-shik of the National Assembly met at the National Assembly with Chu Kyung-ho (left) of the People Power Party and Park Chan-dae (right), floor leaders of the Democratic Party, to discuss the issue of distributing standing committees for the organization of the National Assembly. 2024.6.10
kjhpress@yna.co.kr
(End)

? Yonhap News Agency, unauthorized reproduction, redistribution, AI training and use prohibited

The problem is that if the People Power Party refuses to accept the seven committees, the government's administrative operations could be directly impacted. If the Democratic Party secures the Strategy and Finance Committee in the National Assembly, the opposition's influence is expected to increase in the government's tax reform in the second half of this year. The Democratic Party cited the main reasons for this year's poor tax revenue performance as the Yoon Suk-yeol administration's large-scale tax cuts for the wealthy and failures in government tax revenue forecasting. This means the Democratic Party may pull out the card of a full reassessment of this year's tax revenue forecast. The Industry, Trade, Energy, Small and Medium Enterprises and Startups Committee is also a key committee that the ruling party must secure to ensure stable support for businesses.

Nevertheless, the likelihood of the ruling party accepting the seven committees is slim. The reason is that if the opposition accepts the committees forcibly distributed to them, they will inevitably be led by the Democratic Party throughout the first half of the 22nd National Assembly. Professor Shin Yul of Myongji University's Department of Political Science and Diplomacy said in a phone call, "Politics is a game with rules, but the Democratic Party has completely broken the rules," adding, "The opposition insists on following the basic law for the formation of the Assembly, but the Democratic Party ignored the customary law for committee distribution," expressing concern over the opposition's unilateral dominance.