Multi-member Districts? Parallel Proportional Representation? ... A Look at the Leading Election Law Proposal

Both Parties to Hold Policy Lawmaker Meeting on 16th
Mixed Urban-Rural Large Electoral District System and Comprehensive Proportional Representation System, etc.

On the 16th, both the ruling and opposition parties will hold policy caucuses to discuss the election system reform proposals. The ruling and opposition parties are gathering opinions within their parties regarding the four proposals suggested by the National Assembly's Special Committee on Political Reform (Jeonggae Teukwi).

The election law amendment proposals put forward by the Special Committee on Political Reform include ▲single-member district system + semi-proportional representation system ▲single-member district system + parallel proportional representation system ▲mixed urban-rural large district system + regional semi-proportional representation system ▲full proportional representation system. Members of the National Assembly are elected through both constituency elections and proportional representation elections. Based on the 21st general election, out of the total 300 seats, 253 were constituency seats and 47 were proportional representation seats.

First, the single-member district system is a system where only the first-place candidate in a district is elected. Proportional representation is a system that allocates seats to parties in proportion to their share of the vote, and the linked (or mixed-member proportional) system fills the remaining seats from proportional representation if a party fails to secure seats equivalent to its vote share in the constituencies.

Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

For example, if a party receives 10% of the vote, it is guaranteed 10% of the total 300 seats, which is 30 seats. If it wins 15 constituency seats, it will be allocated 15 proportional representation seats; if it wins 30 constituency seats, it will not be allocated any proportional seats.

The semi-proportional representation system links only a portion of the proportional seats to the party vote share. In South Korea, the 21st general election applied the semi-proportional system to 30 out of 47 proportional seats.

On the other hand, the parallel system allocates seats in proportion to the party vote share regardless of the number of constituency seats won. For example, if a party's vote share is 10%, it receives 10% of the current 47 proportional seats, which is 4.7 seats.

The problem is that as the proportional representation system shifts from linked to parallel, proportionality decreases and wasted votes increase. Since the linked system is advantageous for small parties to enter the National Assembly, there is a strong call from the progressive camp to adopt the linked proportional representation system. Kim Jin-pyo, the Speaker of the National Assembly who proposed the parallel system, also suggested increasing the number of proportional seats from the current 47 to 97 to address proportionality issues.

The 'mixed urban-rural large district system + regional semi-proportional representation system' proposal introduces a mixed urban-rural district system for constituencies and a regional proportional representation system for proportional seats. The mixed urban-rural district system is a hybrid system that applies a large multi-member district system in urban areas and a single-member district system in rural areas. To increase the proportion of proportional seats, adjustment of constituency seats is necessary; for rural areas with low population, the introduction of large districts is limited to metropolitan areas to prevent excessively large constituencies.

Additionally, the country is divided into six regions: Seoul, Incheon-Gyeonggi, Chungcheong-Gangwon, Jeolla-Jeju, Gyeongbuk, and Gyeongnam, and proportional seats are allocated regionally through the regional proportional representation system. This system has the advantage of mitigating party regionalism, but there are concerns that functional representation and representation of some regions may weaken. The current semi-proportional system linking constituency and proportional seats can also be applied together.

The 'full proportional representation system' proposal elects all National Assembly seats through proportional representation only. This is close to a regional proportional representation system combined with a large district system. The number of seats per region is determined by party vote share, and candidates with the highest vote shares within each party's allocated seats are elected. Although this proposal aims to increase the number of proportional seats, it is generally considered unlikely to be adopted due to the need for radical changes.

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