The ruling People Power Party (PPP) decided Thursday to recommend President Yoon Suk Yeol veto a special bill calling for a new probe into the 2022 Itaewon crowd crush, saying a fair investigation cannot take place under the bill.

The PPP instead proposed negotiations to come up with a new bill that can ensure a fair probe.

The main opposition Democratic Party (DP), which holds a controlling majority in the National Assembly, railroaded the special bill on Jan. 9 after negotiations with the ruling party broke off. PPP lawmakers boycotted the vote in protest.

The presidential office has since been mulling whether to endorse or reject the bill.

The legislation calls for establishing a special investigation committee to look again into the tragedy that killed 159 people, many of them women in their 20s, on a narrow back alley in the nightlife district of Itaewon on Oct. 29 amid Halloween festivities.

On Thursday, the PPP held a general meeting of its lawmakers and decided to recommend vetoing the measure, a
rguing the bill is unfair as it allows the opposition to fill a majority of the committee members with people favorable to the DP.

Rep. Yun Jae-ok, the PPP’s floor leader, said the rival parties were close to agreement earlier this month, but the DP went ahead and passed its version of the bill through the Assembly unilaterally in what he said was an attempt to induce Yoon to reject it.

Yun suggested renegotiations to remove “toxic clauses” that undermine the committee’s fairness.

Meanwhile, civic groups and a group of bereaved families of the crowd crush gathered in front of the presidential office and shaved their heads in protest, after the PPP said it will recommend Yoon veto the bill.

Source: Yonhap News Agency