National Assembly convenes extraordinary session on Monday
- 5 years ago
South Korea's National Assembly kicks off an extraordinary parliamentary session today.
Rival parties have agreed last week to convene the session in order to settle a number of issues.
For more on the session's agenda,... we connect to our political correspondent Kim Min-ji on the phone.
Min-ji, fill us in.
Ji-yoon... the session gets going today.... but given that there's only two weeks left before the year's end,.... rival lawmakers don't have much time,... especially with the stack of agenda items they have to go through.
Probably the biggest issue at stake,... is deciding how to reform the parliamentary election system -- in a way that parliamentary seats better reflect voters' party preferences.
Under the current system,... a voter is required to select someone to represent their district,... while another ballot is cast for the party of their preference.
The ruling and main opposition parties favor the current system as they have a higher chance of winning.
But minor parties demand a system in which parliamentary seats are tied to the percentage of voters' support for different parties -- and so,... want to increase the number of proportional seats.
The National Assembly has 300 members,... with 253 seats based on constituencies and 47 members chosen by proportional representation.
The parties have agreed to come up with a new proportional representation system and vote on it in January.
Besides that, other agendas on the list include... reviewing bills related to raising transparency and rooting out accounting fraud at private kindergartens,... forming a special committee to hold a parliamentary probe into hiring irregularities in the public sector,... as well as revising bills to expand the adoption of a flexible working system.
Mind you, it's not expected to be smooth sailing given that rival parties are deeply divided on most issues.
This has been Kim Min-ji from the National Assembly.
Rival parties have agreed last week to convene the session in order to settle a number of issues.
For more on the session's agenda,... we connect to our political correspondent Kim Min-ji on the phone.
Min-ji, fill us in.
Ji-yoon... the session gets going today.... but given that there's only two weeks left before the year's end,.... rival lawmakers don't have much time,... especially with the stack of agenda items they have to go through.
Probably the biggest issue at stake,... is deciding how to reform the parliamentary election system -- in a way that parliamentary seats better reflect voters' party preferences.
Under the current system,... a voter is required to select someone to represent their district,... while another ballot is cast for the party of their preference.
The ruling and main opposition parties favor the current system as they have a higher chance of winning.
But minor parties demand a system in which parliamentary seats are tied to the percentage of voters' support for different parties -- and so,... want to increase the number of proportional seats.
The National Assembly has 300 members,... with 253 seats based on constituencies and 47 members chosen by proportional representation.
The parties have agreed to come up with a new proportional representation system and vote on it in January.
Besides that, other agendas on the list include... reviewing bills related to raising transparency and rooting out accounting fraud at private kindergartens,... forming a special committee to hold a parliamentary probe into hiring irregularities in the public sector,... as well as revising bills to expand the adoption of a flexible working system.
Mind you, it's not expected to be smooth sailing given that rival parties are deeply divided on most issues.
This has been Kim Min-ji from the National Assembly.