Yoo Seung-min "Welcome Yoon's Proposal for Major Electoral Districts... Let's Reform Elections"

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Ji-eun] As President Yoon Seok-yeol and National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo proposed a reform of the 'large multi-member district system' for the new year, Yoo Seung-min, a former lawmaker and one of the ruling party's presidential candidates, also raised his voice saying "I actively welcome it" and that election system reform should be pursued.

On the 2nd, Yoo said through social media (SNS), "I hope that our National Assembly will take the opportunity to initiate election system reform."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

He said, "The chronic disease of our politics is that politics rushes to both extremes and gets trapped in hostile confrontation, failing to solve the problems of the times and failing to give hope to the people," adding, "If the winner-takes-all single-member district system is changed to a large multi-member district system, our politics will better represent the diverse voices of the people, transcend the regional and ideological confrontations, with conservatives representing the people in Honam and progressives representing the people in Yeongnam, enabling 'politics of consensus for the future beyond factions'."

In a New Year interview with Chosun Ilbo released that day, President Yoon proposed reforming the large multi-member district system, saying, "Depending on regional characteristics, methods to elect 2, 3, or 4 members can also be considered." Speaker Kim also pointed out the blind spots of the current single-member district system during a meeting with reporters after the National Assembly's opening ceremony, mentioning, "The large multi-member district system is also being proposed as one alternative."

Unlike the current single-member district system where only the first-place candidate in one electoral district is elected, the large multi-member district system allows candidates placing 3rd or 4th to be elected, making it one of the alternatives to solve the 'winner-takes-all' problem. However, concerns have been raised that in regions where major parties have high support, multiple nominations could rather deepen the monopoly structure. Japan and Taiwan, which once used this system, switched to the single-member district system in 1994 and 2004 respectively, and South Korea also used this method during the Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan administrations in the past.

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