Political parties clash over fast-tracking electoral reform bill

Mar 19, 2019, 09:28 am

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The National Assembly building./ Yonhap

By AsiaToday reporter Lim Yoo-jin

Political parties on Monday clashed over fast-tracking an electoral reform bill to increase the number of proportional seats. The intense confrontation between the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) and four other parties, including the ruling and three minor opposition parties, is leading to concerns that National Assembly would be unable to function properly.

The ruling Democratic Party and three minor opposition parties, including the Bareunmirae Party, the Party for Democracy and Peace, and the Justice Party, are working to come up with a final joint-electoral reform proposal that would reduce the number of district parliamentary seats from 253 to 225, while increasing the number of proportional representation seats from 47 to 75.

However, the main opposition Liberty Korea Party is strongly opposing the move over concerns of losing its parliamentary seats to the liberal minor parties. The LKP criticized the DPK and other minor parties’ move to fast-track the electoral reform bill, calling it a “leftist coalition government plan.”

The LKP, which had originally planned to hold a general meeting of the assembly, held a massive emergency meeting at Constitutional Memorial Hall on Monday and maintained its hard-line stance. “The electoral law agreed by the ruling and three opposition parties is a complete power deal and collusion,” said Rep. Na Kyung-won, floor leader of the LKP. “Such an abnormal electoral system that makes people confused is an election manipulation program that rigs the results,” she said.

While holding a rein of electoral reform on the main opposition party, the DPK is carefully reviewing the situation of other parties for two other reform bills placed on the fast track. One of the bills would establish an independent body to probe high-ranking officials, while the other would adjust the investigative authority of the police and prosecution.

“The fast track operation for reforming the electoral system is being proceeded by the ruling and three opposition parties in accordance with the National Assembly Law in order to fulfill the pledge of electoral reform that has been broken by the Liberty Korea Party,” said Rep. Kang Byung-won, spokesman of the ruling Democratic Party.

Although the four parties have generally agreed to put the bills on a fast track, they are still clashing on the details. Some lawmakers from the Bareunmirae Party expressed dissatisfaction over the fact that the new proportional representation system will only reflect 50 percent of voter support for a party instead of 100 percent. Lawmakers within the minor Party for Democracy and Peace voiced concerns over a possible cut in the number of seats representing agricultural regions in the southwestern Jeolla province.

Rep. Oh Shin-hwan of the Bareunmirae Party said during a MBC radio interview Monday that there are some lawmakers in the party who said they would leave the party if the electoral reform bill is fast-tracked with doubts whether it is right for the majority to put the bill on a fast track while excluding one side when discussing the rules of election.

Rep. Yu Sung-yop, a member of the PDP’s Supreme Council, opposed the electoral bill during a party meeting Monday, saying, “It is better not to agree on the electoral bill if it doesn’t represent each region.”

#fast track #electoral reform #Liberty Korea Party #Democratic Party of Korea