[Yeouido Interview] "Parallel Regression Means Regressing to Past Regionalism"

Interview with Park Seong-jun, Democratic Party Lawmaker
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"Returning to the parallel proportional representation system is equivalent to regressing South Korea's electoral system to the past. If we revive the parallel proportional representation system, regionalism will inevitably resurface."

Park Seong-jun, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, criticized the ruling party's call to revert to the parallel proportional representation system, calling it "a regressive idea to return to the old electoral system." He argued that it would weaken both proportionality and representativeness, the fundamental principles of the current electoral system, raising concerns that it would fail to adequately reflect the will of the people.

[Yeouido Interview] Park Sung-jun, Democratic Party member. Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

With the 22nd general election just six months away, the ruling and opposition parties have yet to reach an agreement on the "rules of the game," namely the electoral system. The deadlock stems from their inability to narrow differences over the method of selecting proportional representatives. Speaker Kim Jin-pyo set this month as the deadline for electoral system agreement, but proper discussions between the parties have not even taken place.

The Democratic Party insists on maintaining the semi-linked proportional representation system. They advocate for a regional proportional representation system based on dividing the country into three regions?North, Central, and South?and applying the semi-linked proportional representation method. However, the People Power Party has expressed its position to abolish the current semi-linked proportional representation system and revert to the parallel proportional representation system, leaving a wide gap between the parties on electoral reform proposals.

Park also expressed concerns about the revival of regionalism. He explained, "The linked proportional representation system was created to address regional hegemony, which was a problem in past electoral systems. Returning to the parallel proportional representation system will inevitably strengthen regionalism again." He added, "To eliminate regionalism and prevent wasted votes, the introduction of a regional proportional representation system based on the single-member district system, as currently advocated by the Democratic Party, should be implemented."

The semi-linked proportional representation system implemented in the 21st general election has been criticized for exposing the problem of "proportional satellite parties." Park argued, "The call to return to the old electoral system, citing the satellite party issue, is fundamentally driven by a convenience to cling to regional vested interests. The correct direction for the 22nd general election is to improve the electoral system to resolve these side effects."

In fact, Park Seong-jun proposed the "Satellite Party Prevention Act" (a partial amendment to the Public Official Election Act) last April to minimize the creation of proportional satellite parties by the two major parties. The core of the bill mandates that parties nominating more than 30% of candidates within the range of constituency seats must also nominate more than 30% of candidates within the proportional representation seats. This aims to prevent the emergence of satellite parties by the two major parties and facilitate the entry of smaller parties into the National Assembly.

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