The People Power Party (PPP) announced it will conduct a filibuster, or unlimited debate, on all agenda items at Wednesday's National Assembly plenary session convened for a revote on a constitutional amendment.
"National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik and the Democratic Party plan to forcibly convene tomorrow's plenary session without agreement and push through both the revote on the constitutional amendment and all bills tabled at the plenary session," PPP Floor Leader Song Eon-seok said in a notice to party lawmakers Tuesday.
"Our party intends to respond with unlimited debate on all agenda items tabled in this attempt to push through a plenary session held without agreement and a hasty constitutional amendment that falls short of a proper revision," he added. With the Democratic Party planning to table more than 30 contentious bills at Wednesday's plenary session, the PPP intends to block the passage of all bills, including the constitutional amendment, through the filibuster.
The National Assembly held a plenary session in the afternoon and tabled the constitutional amendment jointly proposed by six parliamentary parties excluding the PPP. However, the vote failed to reach a quorum as PPP lawmakers boycotted it. The amendment includes provisions to incorporate the spirit of the Busan-Masan Democratic Protests and the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement into the Constitution's preamble, tighten requirements for declaring martial law, and mandate balanced regional development.
