Ruling party appeals to minor parties for 'liberal big tent'

Lee Jae-myung, left, presidential candidate of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, speaks during a town hall meeting at Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering on Geoje Island in South Gyeongsang Province, Sunday. Yonhap

By Kwon Mee-yoo

The ruling Democratic Party of Korea is moving to woo minor left-wing opposition parties, apparently seeking a potential "liberal big tent" for a single candidate in next March's presidential election.

Its move reflects the DPKs urgent need for a breakthrough, as recent public opinion polls show its candidate Lee Jae-myung trailing behind the main opposition People Power Party (PPP) candidate Yoon Seok-youl and the public support gap between them is widening.

One such move is Lee's suggestion to revise the law to prevent parties from creating "satellite parties" to win more seats in general elections, which caused a stir in the latest legislative elections in April last year.

In late 2019, the DPK partnered with four minor parties and passed the new electoral system which was aimed at giving underrepresented smaller parties more chances to win in the proportional representation vote. But the two major parties ― the United Future Party, a predecessor of the PPP, and the DPK ― created "paper parties," and these satellite parties took about three quarters of the proportional representation seats and later merged with the major parties. This dealt a severe blow to the "real" minor parties including the progressive Justice Party and the liberal Open Minjoo Party.

According to the DPK's election committee spokesperson Park Chan-dae, Lee apologized on behalf of the ruling party for creating satellite parties at the time, saying their creation failed to live up to the purpose of the new electoral system.

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"The DPK, which claims to advocate reform, joined the satellite party creation move to get several more National Assembly seats, taking away chances for minor parties and thus failing to reflect diverse political opinions of the public," Lee was quoted as saying by Park.

Lee's move to embrace minor parties comes as he was neck and neck with the PPP candidate, and has been more recently losing to Yoon. According to the latest poll by Korea Society Opinion Institute, Friday, Yoon took the lead with a 43 percent support rate over Lee's 31.2 percent.

Lee has to join hands with minor liberal parties to form a "liberal big tent" to win the presidential election, and the satellite party prevention law is a conciliatory gesture to the minor parties.

Rep. Sim Sang-jeung, presidential candidate of the Justice Party, briefs on a roadmap to the four-day workweek and the new labor law at the Chun Tae-il Foundation in central Seoul, Friday, commemorating the 51st anniversary of the labor activist Chun's death. Yonhap

Despite Lee's attempt to appeal to left-wing parties, Rep. Sim Sang-jeung, presidential candidate of the Justice Party, clearly noted that she has no intention to merge with Lee and the DPK. She blamed the DPK for reforming the electoral system and then abusing it to win more seats.

"Unifying the liberal parties will exclude diverse political voices that are not represented by the two major parties," Sim was quoted saying according to Yonhap News.

She also said the voters made the DPK win the presidential, general and local elections (in recent years). "But the results were far below public expectations, so now the ruling party should be held responsible," Sim said in a radio interview, Sunday.

Sim, a labor activist-turned-politician, ran in the presidential election back in 2017 and received 6.17 percent of the votes.

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