By Kang Seung-woo
The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) resumed their negotiations Tuesday to redraw constituencies in preparation for the general election slated for April 13 next year.
They previously planned to complete the talks by Friday, five months ahead of the election, following the collapse of their previous talks, but the deadline is likely to be extended further due to wide differences on how to redraw the electoral map.
Some worry that their debates could drag on into next year.
“They are not expected to reach an agreement by either the Nov. 13 deadline or anytime soon due to differing views,” said Bae Jong-chan, the chief director at political pollster Research and Research.
In previous elections in 2008 and 2012, the National Assembly approved the electoral map with less than two months to go before the elections. In 2004, they managed to complete it with only 33 days remaining.
In addition, should the issue of state-authored history textbooks prolong or other issues arise, the talks may be dragged out longer.
After the Tuesday meeting, the two sides agreed to discuss with their leaderships whether to hold an additional meeting.
The key impediment to reaching a compromise is whether to reduce the number of proportional representation members selected according to the number of votes each party receives in a general election.
Last year, the Constitutional Court ruled that electoral boundaries should be redrawn to address unequal representation, saying that the population ratio of the most populous electoral district to the least populous must be lower than two to one.
Based on the ruling, an independent electoral redistricting committee has proposed reducing parliamentary seats in less-populous regions.
The Saenuri Party supports the idea of increasing the number of constituencies to 259 and reducing non-electoral seats to maintain the 300-seat legislature; but the NPAD seeks to increase the number of electoral districts by a small margin without reducing the number of seats for proportional representatives, saying that the system can ease widespread regionalism. However, the NPAD’s position faces public sentiment that is generally against parliamentary expansion.
Under the plan submitted by the redistricting committee, some rural regions in North Gyeongsang Province and other remote areas in the southern parts of the country are expected to lose seats, which is drawing backlash from representatives of these areas.
“Should the two sides reach an agreement in the future, it will be like increasing the number of electoral districts and reducing the seats for proportional representatives,” said Yoon Hee-woong, a senior researcher at Opinion Live.
“However, they will also discuss ways to minimize the reduction of parliamentary seats for rural areas.”