Ha finds response in general election

Ha Seung-soo, co-chairman of the Green Party

By Kim Ji-soo

The April 13 general election had interesting elements other than the result that produced the Minjoo Party of Korea as the dominant party while the ruling Saenuri Party lost its majority. Throughout the elections, voters noticed numerous political parties, including the Green Party Korea.

The party fielded five candidates in electoral districts and listed five proportional representation candidates. None of the five won, including Ha Seung-soo, co-chairman of the Green Party, who ran in Jongno. The result dented the party’s objective to obtain 3 percent of party-preference votes so it could produce proportional representative lawmakers. But he sees a future possibility.

“We saw a positive response from the women and young voters during the campaign,” Ha said Wednesday. “And we earned 0.76 percent in party-preference votes. But in Seoul, the vote for the party recorded 1.13 percent.”

He said these voters were concerned with the values of life, security and sustainability that the Green Party espouses. The party is young, having been founded in 2012 with values of grassroots democracy, social justice, de-growth or sustainable growth, nonviolence and peace and ecology.

“These issues are universal values that Korean politics should rightly deal with in the political arena,” Ha said.

The party may have failed to get the votes needed to enter the 20th National Assembly, but Ha said more constituents will see the relevance of the party’s platform.

“The party will start working toward the upcoming domestic political schedules, such as the 2017 presidential election, and in particular the 2018 local elections,” he said.

The party has some 10,000 members and policies such as shifting energy production from nuclear to renewable in this era of low economic growth to protect the environment. Ha said the party first hopes to vitalize through local movements. “That is also in accordance with the Green parties around the globe, who first built locally,” Ha, 47, said.

Ha, a graduate of Seoul National University’s business major, was an accountant and a lawyer before engaging in such civic groups as People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy. He became a staunch opponent of nuclear energy following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Asked if the party might move to align with mainstream political parties, Ha said that would be speaking too much of the future.

“We remain as the alternative political party,” Ha said.

He said the party’s most immediate plan is to campaign to change the electoral system so smaller minority parties can enter the National Assembly, and to focus on the 2018 local elections.