A Seoul court is scheduled to hold a hearing Wednesday to consider an injunction request filed by former People Power Party(PPP) chair Lee Jun-seok against the ruling party’s decision to transition to an emergency leadership system.
According to the legal community on Wednesday, the Seoul Southern District Court will convene the hearing at 3 p.m. to deliberate on the validity of the PPP’s launch of an emergency committee, which effectively deprived Lee of his leadership role.
The 37-year-old politician, who was given a six-month suspension of party membership last month by the party’s ethics committee over allegations that he ordered the destruction of evidence related to sexual bribery, officially lost his position as PPP chair on Tuesday after the party completed the composition of a nine-member emergency committee earlier in the day.
Lee has argued that there was a procedural flaw in the PPP’s decision to shift to an emergency leadership mode, citing the party charter’s Article 96, which allows such a transition only when the party’s supreme council is incapacitated or in case of contingency for the party. The former leader claimed his suspension does not amount to a contingency.
On the other hand, the party’s emergency leader Joo Ho-young has said there has been no flaws in the decision, and that even if there had been a flaw, it has been already addressed.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday night, Lee said he will attend the court hearing.
Source: KBS World Radio