Jo Hae-jin: "Expand Medium-Sized Electoral Districts to Alleviate Regionalism"... Joo Ho-young Says "Side Effects Must Be Reduced"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy reporters Lee Ji-eun and Lim Chun-han] There has been a call to expand the medium multi-member district system to abolish regionalism and reform the National Assembly election system.

Cho Hae-jin, who ran as the running mate of Kwon Young-se, the candidate for floor leader of the United Future Party, responded to an on-site question at the 'General Assembly of Elected Members for the Election of Floor Leader and Policy Committee Chair' held at the National Assembly main building on the 8th, saying, "We need to consider expanding the medium multi-member district system."

He said, "Preventing wasted votes is a principle of democracy, but because of that, strange election laws were created. I agree with the intention to give representation even to minority votes, but if the president’s power is exercised 100% by 41%, isn’t the remaining 60% also wasted votes?"

Candidate Kwon also said, "Election laws basically should not be tampered with recklessly," but added, "Basically, I support the medium multi-member district system. In single-member districts, there are cases where representation is barely achieved."

On the other hand, Joo Ho-young, a candidate for floor leader, said, "Every election system has its pros and cons. There is no perfect system," and added, "The problem of wasted votes in single-member districts also exists in the medium multi-member district system in terms of equivalence. It is desirable to create a system that reduces side effects." Lee Jong-bae, running mate of candidate Joo, said, "This is an opportunity to thoroughly discuss how to proceed with the election law and to gather consensus to revise the election law system again."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.