The ruling party faces an uphill battle in the coming week in its push to confirm Prime Minister-designate Hwang Kyo-ahn as the opposition remains stalwart in its resistance.
The ruling Saenuri Party has vowed to push the confirmation through the National Assembly early in the week with or without the cooperation from the opposition block.
The party has 160 of the 298 seats, a majority that will allow it to unilaterally confirm Hwang.
But the plan requires a decision by National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa to convene a plenary session for a vote on Hwang’s confirmation. Chung has remained ambiguous.
The main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy has denounced Hwang as unfit for the country’s second-highest government position on grounds that he took on legal cases in which the judge was his high school classmate when working as a lawyer in the past.
The Saenuri Party plans to have negotiations to hold a plenary session as early as Monday, but opposition party members said it won’t happen until at least Thursday, when a parliamentary interpellation session kicks off.
Hwang, who stepped down as justice minister Saturday, was nominated in May, a month after then-Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo stepped down amid allegations of bribery. (Yonhap)
