National Assembly Causing Trouble over Vote by Proxy

The plenary session of the National Assembly was held, Nov. 12, in which lawmakers put to the vote again 47 bills that were illegally passed, Nov. 7-8, with not enough lawmakers for a quorum present, including the revision bill of the law on education public workers.

It is the first time in Korea’s modern political history that the Assembly discussed bills again that had already passed through its plenary session due to controversy over the effectiveness of bills.

The number of present lawmakers reached 187 at the highest at the Nov. 12 session and an electronic voting system was used. It is also the first time that all introduced bills were treated in the electronic voting system. The National Assembly is scheduled to use this way for all bills that will be presented in the future.

The result of the electronic vote showed that Rep. Gang Chang-seong of the Grand National Party (GNP) and independent lawmaker Song Yoeong-jin voted against the revision bill of the Agricultural Land Law, which was unanimously passed earlier. As other 10 bills that were carried unanimously, Nov.7-8, also proved to have received negative votes, the electronic vote system turned out to be like an open vote.

Park Gwan-yong, Speaker of the National Assembly said, "The Assembly has decided to submit again some out of the bills that were passed, Nov. 7-8, because questions were raised over the number of present lawmakers. If the electronic voting system takes root, it will get rid of disputes involving the number of registered lawmakers and enhance lawmakers’ sense of responsibility."

As Rep. Park Sang-hee of the Millennium Democratic Party and Rep. Lee Sang-bae of the GNP turned out to have voted as proxy replacing lawmakers in the next seats, who left the floor momentarily at the Nov.12 session, it aroused trouble. There was even the case that to prevent voting by proxy, a fingerprint recognition device should be attached to the electronic voting machine.

Sang-Ho Yun jkmas@donga.com