The Democratic Party said on June 9 it will introduce a special counsel bill to investigate the National Election Commission (NEC) over the ballot paper shortage during the June 3 local elections.
"The Democratic Party will introduce the NEC special counsel bill today," Cheon Jun-ho, the party's senior deputy floor leader for parliamentary affairs, said at a policy coordination meeting held at the National Assembly. "We must clearly and thoroughly investigate the violation of voting rights by an NEC that has grown negligent without oversight."
He also urged the opposition to return, saying, "The People Power Party should immediately return to the National Assembly and cooperate in passing the special counsel bill."
On the method of recommending the special counsel, Cheon said, "Third-party recommendation is the most reasonable. Typically, the ruling party, the opposition, and the bar association have each recommended a candidate, with the president appointing one of them, but we can agree with the argument that party recommendations should be excluded from this special counsel bill." He explained that the bill explicitly designates "three third-party entities" as the recommenders.
"The People Power Party insists that only they should recommend the special counsel," Cheon said. "They say they also oppose the bar association because NEC commissioner Wie Chul-hwan previously served as its president, but linking the bar association under Wie Chul-hwan's leadership with its current leadership is nonsense. The two are as completely different as the ruling party and the opposition."
"The People Power Party knows this full well. So what is their ulterior motive in insisting that only they should recommend the special counsel?" he said. "They are dragging out time by turning this into a political fight without any justification. We cannot help but question what their real objective is." He added, "Could it be that they are acting on orders from leader Jang Dong-hyuk to induce results that fit election fraud claims?"
