[Editorial] Electoral reform to stop politics of confrontation

In his New Year’s interview, President Yoon Suk Yeol mentioned the need to strengthen representation by adopting mid- or large-sized constituencies for parliamentary elections. “Let’s consider the election of two to four lawmakers in a district because the current single-member constituency has been the very source of conflict over ideology,” he said. We hope political circles start discussions on electoral change as soon as possible.

The single-member constituency exposed many problems in the past as epitomized by the politics of extreme confrontation. As only one candidate is elected lawmaker per district, candidates are obsessed with demonizing their rivals to thwart their campaigns. As candidates from large parties with a strong support base get elected easily under the system, it only consolidates the power structure dominated by two major parties. As a result, the Democratic Party (DP) and the People Power Party (PPP) have so far enjoyed a weird cohabitation — hostile co-existence — in which the two parties share legislative seats after defining other parties as their common enemy.

The single-member district system cannot represent the voters well. In the 2020 parliamentary elections, 43.7 percent of the votes could not be reflected at all. In other words, the votes that went to candidates who won the second or third place were simply dead. Also, the PPP and the DP won overwhelmingly more votes than their counterpart in the Yeongnam and Honam region, respectively, due to the deep-rooted regionalism.

The winner-take-all system also deepens internal fissions of political parties. Due to the heated competition to get nominations in elections, candidates are fiercely fighting against one another. Some even pose as the “mouthpiece” of their party and others show blind allegiance to political heavyweights who can wield influence on their nominations, as clearly seen in the intense contest in the PPP ahead of the national convention in March. Under such circumstances, diverse voices are lost and new faces cannot join.

With barely over one month left before the deadline on fixing districts for the parliamentary elections next year, politicians must accelerate the discussion on introducing a new electoral system. The mid- or large-sized constituency system was introduced in 30 places during the June 1 local elections last year as a pilot program, but only four out of the 109 elected came from splinter parties. That calls for a review on whether to restrict the number of candidates per party in elections.

To put our overheated politics back on track, politicians must change our imperial presidency, too. As National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo prepares to put to a voting a revision to the Election Act, lawmakers must start discussion on a Constitutional amendment to end the imperial presidency. We hope politicians from both sides of the aisle take the path toward a better future for our politics.