Ruling party boycotts S.Korean parliament’s speaker election

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - In an unprecedented move, South Korea’s ruling party lawmakers boycotted the election of a of speaker the newly elected parliament on Wednesday.

It is the first time in the country’s “constitutional history that the first plenary meeting of the parliament opened unilaterally without the ruling party,” Seoul-based Yonhap News reported.

Five-time lawmaker Woo Won-shik of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP) was elected the speaker by a unilateral vote by opposition parties which hold a majority in the parliament, locally known as the National Assembly.

The unprecedented boycott of the inaugural plenary was triggered after the ruling People’s Power Party (PPP) and opposition parties failed to reach a pact about forming the parliamentary standing committees.

South Korea held parliamentary elections in April while the presidential election is set for 2027.

“This plenary session is neither constitutional nor legal because there is no bipartisan agreement on the agenda,” PPP lawmaker Choo Kyung-ho told the lawmakers in brief comments before leaving the session.

The newly elected 300-member parliament began its four-year term last Thursday.

While the DP dominates the parliament with 192 seats, President Yoon Suk-yeol’s ruling PPP holds only 108 seats.

Yoon, who has been serving a five-year term since 2022, faced massive opposition to his policies in the parliament in the previous term.