GNP whip calls for secret ballot to ratify FTA
Chosun Ilbo | Jan.16, 2008
GNP Whip Calls for Secret Ballot to Ratify FTA
In a party caucus on Tuesday, Grand National Party floor leader Ahn Sang-soo called on lawmakers to ratify the free trade agreement with the U.S. by secret ballot if necessary.
"I’m asking you to make efforts to pass the FTA ratification bill in an extra house session in February, even in a secret ballot, considering that Sohn Hak-kyu (the new leader of the United New Democratic Party) has expressed consent to its passage,” he said.
The FTA ratification bill was submitted by the government on Sept. 7 last year but has since been on ice without even being put up for deliberation in committee because lawmakers from rural districts are against it.
The National Assembly Act stipulates that a secret ballot can be conducted only on personnel bills that have been vetoed by the president. As an exception, a secret ballot is allowed in a plenary session only when more than one-fifth of the lawmakers on the register demand it at the suggestion of the house speaker or a certain number of lawmakers.
UNDP vice floor leader Im Jong-seok called a secret ballot “irrational” in the extra house session given that the U.S. Congress has not yet put ratification of the Korea-U.S. FTA on the agenda. “We must handle the bill in tandem with the corresponding process in the U.S. Congress, while making sufficient preparations for its influence on the industries that will be affected,” he said.
