Parties agree on electoral map

Number of constituencies grows to 253

By Kim Hyo-jin

The rival political parties agreed Tuesday on a new electoral boundaries map for the April 13 general election, ending months of deadlock over redrawing constituencies.

Under the agreement reached between the leaders of the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Minjoo Party of Korea (MPK), the number of electoral constituencies will increase from 246 to 253 while the number of lawmakers selected through proportional representation will be decreased from 54 to 47 to maintain the current 300-seat National Assembly.

The number of constituencies will increase by eight in Gyeonggi Province and by one in Seoul, Incheon, Daejeon and South Chungcheong Province.

However, the number will drop by one in Gangwon, and North and South Jeolla Provinces, respectively and by two in North Gyeongsang Province.

The remaining metropolitan cities of Gwangju, Busan, Ulsan and Daegu, and North Chungcheong and South Gyeongsang provinces will maintain their current number of constituencies.

The population of a constituency will be counted as having a maximum of 280,000 and a minimum at 140,000.

The ruling Saenuri Party Chairman Rep. Kim Moo-sung and his MPK counterpart Kim Jong-in met earlier in the day through arbitration by National Assembly Speaker Chung Ui-hwa and reached the deal, just 50 days before the election.

“Though belated, I’m relieved that parties finally saw eye-to-eye on the electoral rules,” Chung said after the meeting.

Chung requested the electoral redistricting committee under the National Election Commission to fine-tune the constituency boundaries based on the inter-party agreement.

The bill on the new electoral map will be put to a vote at a National Assembly plenary session, Friday. Chung said.

However, the deal was met with resistance from incumbent lawmakers whose constituencies are to be merged or scrapped.

“The party leaders reneged on their promise to minimize the decrease in the number of parliamentary seats allocated to the agricultural and fisheries regions,” said Rep. Hwang Young-cheul of the Saenury Party. His constituency Hongcheon and Hoengseong in Gangwon Province is expected to be absorbed into two other constituencies.

“The plan is to redraw constituencies based only on population numbers while disregarding regional characteristics is just unacceptable,” he added.

The previous constituency map became null and void at the start of the New Year according to a Constitutional Court ruling.

The court ruled in October, 2014 that then electoral map should be redrawn to lower the ratio of the most populous electoral districts to the least populous to two to one from a ratio of three to one by the end of 2015.

The bipartisan discussions on the new map were stalled for months as parties bickered over how to adjust the proportional representation system.

While the delay was criticized for causing confusion among candidates scheduled to run in the upcoming election, the leaders rushed into the deal with no significant change, said political observers.

“The parties of course didn’t risk changing the frame for the parliamentary race,” said Yoon Tae-gon, a senior political analyst at Moa Agenda Strategy, mentioning that the number of constituencies in the Gyeongsang and Jeolla Provinces, home turfs of the Saenuri Party and MPK, respectively, were decreased by the same amount.