Rival parties agree to normalize parliament after 42 day standstill
Arirang News
2018-05-14
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여야, 18일 추경•특검 동시처리 합의…국회 42일만에 정상화
A long-awaited breakthrough at the National Assembly.
Rival parties reached an agreement to normalize parliament after more than a month of standstill.
Meaning they're able to meet the deadline to process the resignations of lawmakers running for the local elections in June.
Let's go straight to our political correspondent Kim Min-ji.
Min-ji,... a sigh of relief at last?
Daniel, you're absolutely right.
It was definitely an announcement anticipated by many.
Rival parties finally reached a compromise to normalize parliament -- which puts an end to the paralysis that has been in place for 42 days.
It was reached after a meeting between the floor leaders of the major parties and the National Assembly Speaker.
The agreement is as follows.
Rival lawmakers will vote on both a bill calling for a special investigation into an online opinion-rigging scandal... as well as the government's extra budget bill -- all on May 18th,... which is this Friday.
This is expected to finally calm a dispute over the manipulation scandal that's deepened the divide between rival parties.
To give you a recap of this case -- a blogger,... with ties to a ruling party lawmaker-- is known to have used a computer program to manipulate internet comments on political news articles... with growing speculation that the blogger may also have been engaged in rigging activities in the run up to last year's presidential elections.
Rival parties say they have also agreed on how to appoint the special prosecutor for the case -- which will see the Korean Bar Association recommending four candidates -- of which the opposition bloc selects two -- while the final pick will be made by the president.
Now with that agreement in place,... all parties are present for a plenary session to process the resignations of lawmakers running for local office.
Today is the deadline to handle the resignations in order to hold by-elections for the vacant districts, on the same day as the local elections on June 13th.
If not, by-elections would be pushed back to April next year.
The situation has been very fluid today,... even looking back just a couple of hours -- but rival parties have finally managed to get legislative affairs moving again -- and hopefully now they will be able to make up for the month and half that was lost.
Back to you, Daniel.
A long-awaited breakthrough at the National Assembly.
Rival parties reached an agreement to normalize parliament after more than a month of standstill.
Meaning they're able to meet the deadline to process the resignations of lawmakers running for the local elections in June.
Let's go straight to our political correspondent Kim Min-ji.
Min-ji,... a sigh of relief at last?
Daniel, you're absolutely right.
It was definitely an announcement anticipated by many.
Rival parties finally reached a compromise to normalize parliament -- which puts an end to the paralysis that has been in place for 42 days.
It was reached after a meeting between the floor leaders of the major parties and the National Assembly Speaker.
The agreement is as follows.
Rival lawmakers will vote on both a bill calling for a special investigation into an online opinion-rigging scandal... as well as the government's extra budget bill -- all on May 18th,... which is this Friday.
This is expected to finally calm a dispute over the manipulation scandal that's deepened the divide between rival parties.
To give you a recap of this case -- a blogger,... with ties to a ruling party lawmaker-- is known to have used a computer program to manipulate internet comments on political news articles... with growing speculation that the blogger may also have been engaged in rigging activities in the run up to last year's presidential elections.
Rival parties say they have also agreed on how to appoint the special prosecutor for the case -- which will see the Korean Bar Association recommending four candidates -- of which the opposition bloc selects two -- while the final pick will be made by the president.
Now with that agreement in place,... all parties are present for a plenary session to process the resignations of lawmakers running for local office.
Today is the deadline to handle the resignations in order to hold by-elections for the vacant districts, on the same day as the local elections on June 13th.
If not, by-elections would be pushed back to April next year.
The situation has been very fluid today,... even looking back just a couple of hours -- but rival parties have finally managed to get legislative affairs moving again -- and hopefully now they will be able to make up for the month and half that was lost.
Back to you, Daniel.
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