Electoral reform has a long way to go

Members of the minor opposition Party for Democracy and Peace participate in a rally calling for electoral reform in Seoul on Dec. 13/ Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

The major political parties agreed in principle last week to introduce a new proportional representation system to better represent voters' party preferences.

However, there is still a bumpy road ahead for them to reach a consensus on the details of the new system because they all have different interests.

The question is whether the big parties are really willing to revise the proportional representation system.

Civic activists and smaller parties have been calling for the introduction of a system similar to the German-style mixed-member proportional representation system (MMPRS) to prevent "dead votes" in elections.

Under the MMPRS system seats are allocated to parties according to the proportion of ballots won by their candidates.

Currently, out of the 300 National Assembly seats up for grabs, 253 seats are given to the winners of elections in constituencies. The remaining 47 proportional representation seats are divided among the parties based on the people's preferences. The voter casts two votes: one for an election and the other for a party.

The current winner-takes-all election system has been criticized for not reflecting the percentage of people who voted for losing candidates and small parties, as the candidate with the most votes wins.

In Korea, the proportional representation system was first introduced in 1948 and revised several times over the decades. The present system was adopted in 2004.

NGOs and smaller parties have criticized it for aggravating regionalism, which has been aperennnial problematic in South Korean politics.

The present system has also been criticized as it is considered favorable to larger parties, which makes it difficult to establish a multi-party system, giving little chance to small parties to expand their presence in the Assembly.

For example, in the last legislative elections in 2016, candidates from the Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) didn't win the most votes in total, but won the most Assembly seats. The DPK won 110 constituencies, while the Saenuri Party, the predecessor of the Liberty Korea Party (LKP), won 105 constituencies. However, the DPK actually won 37 percent of the votes, or 8.88 million, while the LKP won 41.5 percent of the votes, or 9.2 million.

The DPK currently has 123 seats while the LKP has 113 seats. The minor People's Party, a predecessor of the minor Bareunmirae Party and Party for Democracy and Peace (PDP), meanwhile, won 38 seats in total, or 12.7 percent of the seats, with 26.7 percent of the total votes in the election.

Calls are growing to introduce a new representation system that reduces those "dead votes."

In 2015, the National Election Commission proposed to the Assembly the introduction of the German-style electoral system. President Moon Jae-in has been supportive of reform, but the big parties have been reluctant to discuss it.

To be specific, political parties are focusing on adjusting the details on largely two matters: the number of Assembly seats and the ratio of seats for constituencies versus proportional representation candidates.

Many civic activists and smaller parties called for adjusting the ratio of lawmakers elected in constituencies versus those who get seats via proportional representation to 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 in the 300-member Assembly.

Some, such as PDP leader Rep. Chung Dong-young, have demanded an increase in the number of Assembly seats to 360.

The DPK remains cautious about increasing the total number of seats while the LKP downplays the meaning of the agreement reached last week, saying "It means we are open to discussions rather than wanting reform."

Civic groups assert that the country needs a better electoral system as soon as possible to boost political diversity.

"If the German-style system is introduced here, Korea will have a more stable multiple-party system and thus be able to focus more on long-term policies, which are badly needed in Korea now," said Ha Seung-soo, co-chairman of the Green Party and of My Vote, a civil rights group.

"Canada is also discussing the introduction of a similar system. If we change the system, other countries like Japan, for example, could be affected, too."

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