Democratic Party lawmaker Jo Jung-sik became the first member of the party to officially announce his candidacy for National Assembly Speaker.
Rep. Cho, the fifth elected member of the National Assembly, held a press conference at the National Assembly on the morning of the 15th and cast his vote for the second half of the 21st National Assembly, saying, "The Democratic Party's most powerful weapon to protect the people and democracy against the Yoon Seok-yeol regime is the National Assembly."
"Even if I become the Speaker of the National Assembly, I will not forget that I am a member of the Democratic Party," said Assemblyman Cho.
The Speaker of the National Assembly will leave the party he belongs to and become an independent, but he is de facto saying that he will exercise the chairmanship as a member of the Democratic Party.
"The first step to make the second half of the National Assembly a reform and livelihood session is the election of the chairman," Cho said.
He continued, "I will greatly strengthen the powers of the National Assembly," he said.
Rep. Cho, who is considered to be Lee Jae-myung-gye, previously ran for the Gyeonggi governor's intra-party primary, but was defeated by Kim Dong-yeon.
As candidates for the Democratic Party's next National Assembly Speaker, including Rep. Cho, Kim Jin-pyo and Lee Sang-min, who are the same five-term candidates, are being discussed.
The Democratic Party plans to elect a final candidate at the general assembly of the House of Representatives on the 24th.
As the Democratic Party is a majority party, the party sees the second half of the chairmanship as its own, but the power of the people may demand the release of the chairmanship in the process of negotiating the formation of the opposition and opposition members, so the final election may be delayed.
(Photo = Yonhap News)