PPP lawmakers Yun Sang-hyun, Han Ki-ho and Kwon Young-jin among co-sponsors

People Power Party pushes NEC reform as party policy

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon speaks to reporters at the National Assembly on Sunday about the withdrawal of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won and the Democratic Party of Korea's response to the development. [Yonhap]
Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon speaks to reporters at the National Assembly on Sunday about the withdrawal of Justice Minister nominee Kim Seung-won and the Democratic Party of Korea's response to the development. [Yonhap]

Independent lawmaker Han Dong-hoon has introduced a bill to make the heads of the National Election Commission and its regional bodies full-time positions and prohibit them from concurrently holding other public offices.

Han said Sunday he had filed the amendment to the National Election Commission Act as its lead sponsor, with the changes applying to commission chairs at the national, provincial and municipal levels.

The bill also calls for removing provisions that require judges to be recommended or given priority for appointment as election commissioners. It would further specify the qualifications and terms of treatment for commission members.

"Under the current structure, in which a sitting Supreme Court justice serves as a part-time election commission chair, there is inevitably no one responsible for overseeing the organization between elections or for taking accountability when problems arise," Han said. "Having a sitting judge concurrently head an election management body also runs counter to the principle of separation of powers."

People Power Party lawmakers Yun Sang-hyun, Han Ki-ho, Kim Seong-won, Kwon Young-jin and Jo Eun-hee are among the bill's co-sponsors.

The People Power Party is also moving quickly on restructuring the commission. On Thursday, the party held a general assembly of its lawmakers and adopted as official party policy a push to amend the NEC Act — a measure that would expand the number of full-time election commissioners, including the national commission chair, and categorically exclude judges and court civil servants from serving as commissioners.


mp1256@heraldcorp.com