ED Setback to electoral reform
New election rules unlikely to change politics drastically
The ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and four minor parties passed an election reform bill at the National Assembly on Friday. The bill is designed to introduce a mixed-member proportional representation system, under which Assembly seats are tied to the percentage of voters' support for each party. As a result, smaller parties are expected to get more seats in the upcoming general elections scheduled for April.
In many respects, however, the passage of the bill is disappointing. For starters, election reform has evaporated due to a big change in the original bill that called for 75 proportional representation seats, a sharp rise from the present 47 in the 300-member unicameral Assembly. The DPK and the minor opposition parties agreed to the increase in April when they put the bill on a legislative fast track along with a prosecutorial reform bill.
In the face of a backlash from many DPK lawmakers who fear a loss of their seats in the next elections, the number of proportional representation seats remains unchanged. This means that ruling party legislators have tampered with electoral reform to protect their vested interests. Smaller parties will have a reduced chance of gaining more seats. For this reason, critics are denouncing the DPK for compromising its reform drive to better reflect voters' preference for specific political parties.
Another problem is the railroading of the bill without cooperation of the conservative main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP). Working together with the LKP is vital to ensuring electoral reform. So the governing DPK is partly ― although not totally ― responsible for failing to persuade the opposition to join the discussion about how to change the election rules and participate in the vote. Of course, the LKP should get most of the blame for boycotting the whole process of introducing the new system, on fears that it may lose more Assembly seats than any other parties.
LKP lawmakers cannot avoid criticism either for abusing filibuster tactics to delay and obstruct the vote. They even staged scuffles with Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang and DPK legislators to block the passage of the bill at a plenary Assembly session. Their actions made the speaker resort to his power to restore order and mobilize a security guard to bring under control the chaos caused by the protesting LKP members.
The LKP and its legislators should realize the public is already fed up with such extreme confrontations at the Assembly. The LKP should have exhausted every effort to solve the problem through dialogue and compromise. If it continues to use outdated methods to put forward irrational demands, more people will turn their backs on the party.
What is more worrisome is the LKP's plan to create a satellite party to win more proportional representation seats. The plan may not appear illegal under the changed election rules, but it is wrong to abuse electoral reform to pursue its own partisan interests blindly. If it puts the plan into action, the opposition party will inevitably invite the people's wrath and face a day of reckoning. Do not try to upend the foundations of democracy.