Did Gyeonggi Province Council's Committee to Prevent Policy Vacuum Worsen It?

Criticism has been raised that the Committee to Prevent Policy Vacuum in the Gyeonggi Province Council, whose members are predominantly from the Democratic United Party, has instead worsened the policy vacuum in provincial administration.

At the 273rd regular session held on the 5th, Provincial Councilor Lee Sang-sung (Progressive Justice Party, Construction and Transportation Committee, Goyang) raised the political activities of Governor Kim Moon-soo, who has neglected provincial affairs due to his bid in the Grand National Party presidential primary. He strongly criticized the council's special committee, led by the Democratic United Party, for failing to do its best to prevent a policy vacuum and instead worsening provincial administrative confusion by frequently summoning busy Vice-Governors and division and bureau directors during the governor's absence due to increased workload.

Councilor Lee asked Governor Kim, "Do you acknowledge that your bid in the presidential primary has caused a policy vacuum in provincial administration?" Governor Kim responded, "There were measures to address the expected policy vacuum due to the primary bid... but there was a vacuum," effectively expressing agreement with the councilor's criticism of the committee's poor performance.

Furthermore, Councilor Lee pointed out that while the committee made no criticism of 11 councilors who resigned to run for the National Assembly in the last general election, it only focused on Governor Kim's policy vacuum. He criticized the committee members' skewed balance, asking, "Is a councilor's policy vacuum romance, while a governor's policy vacuum infidelity?"

Seeming to reference the Democratic United Party as the ruling party in the council, Councilor Lee said, "I don't know if the Committee to Prevent Policy Vacuum is meant to prevent a vacuum or encourage one," and added, "The Democratic Party's call for Governor Kim's resignation during the primary was politically motivated. Compared to Governor Kim Doo-gwan of South Gyeongsang Province's resignation, the concern over a policy vacuum was not that serious."

Meanwhile, the council's Special Committee to Prevent Policy Vacuum was formed on July 26 with 10 committee members (9 from the Democratic United Party) and operated temporarily until September 25.

Prior to this, Governor Kim gave the highest score of 5 points out of 5 to the Livelihood Countermeasures Committee in response to Councilor Lee's question asking him to rate the council's 12 special activity committees. He then gave 4 points to seven committees including the Free School Meals Committee and 3 points to one GTX Verification Committee, providing generally generous evaluations of the council's special committee activities.