Parliamentary vote for 'Yellow Envelope' bill likely to be delayed to mid-August
The main opposition People Power Party launched a filibuster Monday to delay the vote on a contentious bill proposed by the Democratic Party of Korea, denouncing what it called a "unilateral" legislative push by the ruling liberal bloc.
The filibuster is the first by the conservative party in over a year. It targeted a revision of the Broadcasting Act, concerning the governance structure of public broadcaster KBS. Dozens of Democratic Party lawmakers walked out of the session as Rep. Shin Dong-uk, a first-term lawmaker of the People Power Party, kicked off the debate just after 4 p.m.
Similar revisions of the Foundation for Broadcast Culture Act and the Korea Educational Broadcasting System Act were also due to be voted on at Monday's plenary session for the National Assembly.
The three revision bills are designed to limit the government and politicians' power to name directors to the boards of KBS, MBC and EBS TV.
When a filibuster is initiated, a continuous debate session begins that cannot be halted by a vote until 24 hours have passed. After that, it can be broken with the support of three-fifths of all 298 lawmakers of the National Assembly — or 179 votes.
Five left-leaning parties in South Korea, including the Democratic Party, hold a combined 185 seats at the National Assembly. This means the parties have enough power to not only pass legislation with a majority of seats, but also end the filibuster after 24 hours have passed.
But a 24-hour delay would push the legislation beyond the end of the current session effectively delaying it for several weeks.
Another contentious bill tabled at Monday's plenary session was the Trade Union and Labor Relations Adjustment Act, aimed at broadening the scope of an "employer" when it comes to dealing with labor unions. It seeks to ban companies from claiming damages against labor unions, even if their strikes incurred damages for the company.
All four bills were previously vetoed by former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who worked with the National Assembly dominated by the Democratic Party throughout his short-lived term. He was removed from office in April after a failed martial law attempt in December.
The People Power Party was also poised for a filibuster against a revision of the Commercial Act aimed at banning listed companies with over 2 trillion won ($1.44 billion) in assets from rejecting the cumulative voting system, which would boost minority shareholders' rights to elect a corporate boardroom director. The bill, also led by the Democratic Party, was vetoed by ex-acting President Han Duck-soo while Yoon was impeached.
Before Monday's filibuster, the order of which bill would be brought to the parliamentary vote was the focal point.
The filibuster is to last until Tuesday afternoon, although the monthlong 427th session of the National Assembly was to end Monday night. With the following 428th session of the Assembly kicking off on Wednesday, votes for the remaining contentious bills, including the Trade Union Act revision — also known as the "Yellow Envelope" bill — are likely to start in its earliest plenary session, which is currently scheduled on Aug. 21.
Regarding the sequence of the bills to be voted, Rep. Jung Chung-rae, chair of the Democratic Party, said just before the plenary session on Monday that his party chose a bill over broadcast governance "after some twists and turns," given the gravity of the problem in the current media governance structure that was prone to political influence.
consnow@heraldcorp.com
