Yeoya Non-Standing Committee Chairpersons Unite in Calling for Reform of the Small Constituency System's Flaws

‘Wonoe District Chairpersons Discuss Political Reform’ Debate
Electoral District System Must Be Reformed to Enhance Representativeness and Proportionality

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The out-of-office chairpersons of the People Power Party, the Democratic Party, and the Justice Party argued on the 6th that the electoral system must be reformed to enhance representativeness and proportionality. The out-of-office chairperson of the People Power Party from Honam and the out-of-office chairperson of the Democratic Party from Yeongnam voiced in unison that to overcome the drawbacks of the single-member district system, the introduction of a multi-member district system or supplementary measures such as regional proportional representation or the best-loser system must be established this time.

On the 6th, the National Assembly hosted a forum titled "Out-of-office Regional Chairpersons Discuss Political Reform," organized by the bipartisan Political Reform Members' Group. As the first public program of the bipartisan Political Reform Members' Group, this forum featured out-of-office chairpersons from the metropolitan area, Yeongnam region, and Honam region of the three major parties discussing the direction and necessity of political reform.

Kim Hwajin, Chairperson of the People Power Party Jeonnam Provincial Party Committee, said, "I have been running without a day’s rest, but I was told, 'Are you a fool?' This is not foolishness but a structural contradiction in the political system," and insisted, "The National Assembly must normalize this." Chairperson Kim added, "The president talked about the multi-member district system, and Speaker Kim Jin-pyo agreed, but politically, the Honam and Yeongnam regions are cold to it," and said, "This time, we must break the mindset that tries to deprive city and provincial residents of their legislative service rights to maintain their vested interests." He argued, "If not the multi-member district system, at least as a second-best option, we must create regional proportional representation or the best-loser system (an electoral system that selects the candidate with the highest vote share among the losing candidates as a proportional representative)."

Yoon Junho, Democratic Party Regional Chairperson for Busan Haeundae-gu E, said, "An environment where minorities can participate in elections is necessary," and "We need to create a system that can overcome regionalism." He added, "To strengthen proportionality, the current number of seats must be increased," and requested, "We should boldly increase them and consider a method to elect proportional representatives by region."

Um Jeongae, Justice Party Gyeongbuk Provincial Party Chairperson, said, "Even if the regional proportional representation system is introduced in Gyeongbuk, there are concerns about whether parties other than the People Power Party can enter the National Assembly and about the issue of female quotas," and added, "Institutional design regarding these matters must be carried out together." Chairperson Um said, "Shouldn't we find a way to help each other in politics?" and stated, "The core of electoral reform should be about reducing wasted votes and strengthening proportionality, and even if it becomes regional, how to lower the entry barriers."

Appearance at the inauguration ceremony of the cross-party political reform lawmakers' group on January 30 [Image source=Yonhap News]

Im Mia, Democratic Party Gyeongbuk Provincial Party Chairperson, also said, "For electoral reform to happen, regionalism must be broken, and the number of seats must be guaranteed according to the votes," and added, "With the current 47 proportional representative seats, institutional design is impossible." Chairperson Im, who expressed support for the transition to a large electoral district system, emphasized, "If based on the single-member district system, the ratio of proportional to regional seats should be 2:1," and said, "Only then can regionalism be broken, and securing seats according to votes becomes possible, and it must be a mixed-member proportional system, not a parallel system." She warned that if the regional proportional representation system is introduced in a parallel system while maintaining the current proportional representative seats, it could be a deterioration rather than reform.

Before the forum, the National Assembly’s Special Committee on Political Reform also agreed on redistricting focused on strengthening proportionality and representativeness. Nam In-soon, Chairperson of the Political Reform Special Committee, said at a briefing on the "1-night 2-day workshop results" at the National Assembly that day, "We agreed that increasing the proportionality and representativeness of election results and establishing an electoral system acceptable to the public, which responds to local extinction, alleviates regionalism, and promotes diversity, is an important goal of electoral reform."

The Political Reform Special Committee members held a 1-night 2-day workshop to discuss electoral reform measures, during which they confirmed the "alternative significance" of various options such as parallel proportional representation, single-member districts plus semi-mixed proportional representation, urban-rural combined multi-member districts plus regional and semi-mixed proportional representation, and full proportional representation.

Chairperson Nam said, "We shared the recognition that the multi-member district system, especially the urban-rural combined multi-member district system, can be one of the ways to enhance proportionality and representativeness of election results," and added, "Regarding the improvement of the proportional representation system, we confirmed that improving the ratio between district and proportional seats or introducing regional proportional representation to provide regional representativeness can be effective in responding to the crisis of local extinction." She continued, "We confirmed that the partial introduction of an open list is effective in alleviating negative perceptions of the proportional representation system." Additionally, she introduced, "We agreed that adopting an open list along with the introduction of multiple candidacies should harmonize with the mandatory nomination system for female candidates."

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