Ruling party to push for vote on PM nominee

A top ruling party official vowed Thursday that his party will push to hold a vote this week to confirm the nominee for prime minister if the main opposition party refuses to cooperate.
  

"We are planning to hold a plenary assembly meeting to put the confirmation bill to a vote by tomorrow," Yoo Seong-min, floor leader of the ruling Saenuri Party, said in a meeting of senior party members.
  

The ruling party will persuade the National Assembly speaker to quickly put the nomination to a vote unless the opposition party comes to the negotiations, he said.
  

The move puts the party on a collision course with the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, which claims Hwang Kyo-ahn is unfit for the second-highest political office.
  

In South Korea, the prime minister is the only Cabinet post that requires parliamentary endorsement. Critics say hearings frequently end up humiliating the nominee mainly over his or her past records or ethical lapses and do not focus on the skills required for the job.
  

The ruling party has 160 of the 298 parliamentary seats, a majority that allows it to unilaterally confirm Hwang as the country's new prime minister.
  

Still, the main opposition party remains determined to block the confirmation, citing Hwang's alleged influence-peddling and lobbying attempts.
  

"Our party cannot review the confirmation process on Hwang for now because the public verification on him has not been completed," NPAD floor leader Lee Jong-kul said in a party meeting.
  

During this week's confirmation hearing, opposition lawmakers accused Hwang of undertaking illegitimate legal cases as a lawyer in the past. The nominee was also under fire for his reluctance to submit records to lawmakers over the confirmation hearing.
  

Hwang, currently the justice minister, was nominated to take over the country's No. 2 political job in May, a month after then-Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo stepped down amid allegations he took 30 million won ($27,000) from a businessman who hanged himself in April.
  

If confirmed, Hwang will become the third prime minister under the Park Geun-hye administration. (Yonhap)

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