The amendment to the ‘Direct Direct System for Agricultural Association Presidents’ passed by the subcommittee on agricultural and maritime affairs.

The amendment to the Agricultural Cooperatives Act (Nonghyup Act), which changes the method of electing the chairman of the National Agricultural Cooperatives Association to direct election, was passed by the Bill Review Subcommittee of the National Assembly's Agriculture, Food, Rural Affairs, Oceans and Fisheries Committee led by the Democratic Party of Korea on the 3rd.

The People Power Party protested the ruling party's unilateral handling of the bill at the bill subcommittee held this morning and left the meeting room before the vote was passed.

The main point of the revised bill is to introduce a 'direct member direct system' in which the president of the National Agricultural Cooperative Federation is directly elected by all union members, not the union president, and to strengthen external supervision by establishing an independent audit organization separate from the federation.

In order to reduce election costs and strengthen the linkage between the central association and the union, it also includes a plan to elect the central president and union president together in a national simultaneous union president election.

When the direct election system for union members is introduced, the number of voters will increase from 1,110 (electors) to approximately 1.87 million (union members).

The government and ruling party are pushing for Nonghyup reform following various suspicions of misconduct surrounding Nonghyup Federation Chairman Kang Ho-dong and others.

The Democratic Party believes that democracy can be strengthened through a direct election system and transparency can be strengthened through the establishment of an independent audit organization.

Members of the People Power Party's Agricultural and Fisheries Committee held a press conference at the National Assembly on this day and criticized, "According to the amendment to the 'Nonghyup Act' passed by the ruling party in a hurry, government-recommended personnel will be included in the Nonghyup's main personnel recommendation organization." They added, "The Lee Jae-myung government has put pressure on farmers' livelihoods through a complete survey of farmland, and now it is trying to put even Nonghyup, an autonomous organization, into the hands of the government."

Next, regarding the amendment to the Agricultural Cooperative Act, he said, "It is a deception to the public by packaging a bill that even the Agricultural Cooperatives do not agree with as a 'big win agreement,' and it is a government-run Agricultural Cooperative Act that seeks to expand government influence over the Agricultural Cooperatives through audit and personnel rights," and urged them to stop attempting to submit it to the plenary session.