Rep. Cho Jung-sik of the Democratic Party of Korea, who is running in the election for the second-half Speaker of the 22nd National Assembly, pushed back on Tuesday against suggestions in some quarters that he appears too harmless, saying he had performed "frog jumps" onto the Speaker's podium during the Lee Myung-bak administration's railroading of bills.
Appearing on the YouTube show "Kim Eo-jun's Humility Is Hard News Factory," Cho said, "One of my nicknames is 'Frog Uncle,'" adding, "The current National Assembly Advancement Act was in fact created because of me."
"This is my third time challenging for the Speaker's position," Cho said. "Having worked with President Lee Jae-myung for a long time, we created the Lee Jae-myung government, and I consider it my political destiny to help make the Lee Jae-myung government a success together in the National Assembly."
With this Speaker election marking the first time that a rights-holding party member vote will be reflected at a 20 percent weighting, Cho addressed assessments that rival candidate Park Jie-won leads in support among party members, saying, "The actual party member vote results and general opinion polls will be somewhat different."
"As the election approaches its final stage, I have been traveling extensively to the field and across the country. I am currently on an upward trend," he said. "In the end, highly engaged party members will judge who can properly build the National Assembly in step with the Lee Jae-myung government, and who will do it better. I have far greater appeal."
Rep. Cho Jung-sik, Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, and Rep. Park Jie-won, all of the Democratic Party of Korea, have thrown their hats in the ring for the second-half Speaker position. The final Speaker candidate will be selected through an online vote of Democratic Party rights-holding members on Tuesday and Wednesday (20 percent) and an in-person vote by Democratic Party lawmakers on Thursday (80 percent).
