Mention of 'Expansion of National Assembly Members'... What Are Speaker Kim Jin-pyo's True Intentions?

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[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] Kim Jin-pyo, Speaker of the National Assembly, who is promoting political reform as his final task in his political career, mentioned the necessity of 'increasing the number of National Assembly members.' Speaker Kim drew attention by actively introducing a plan to expand the number of members based on freezing personnel expenses related to members.

On the 1st, Speaker Kim appeared on CBS Radio's 'Kim Hyun-jung's News Show' and emphasized the need for political reform. At this occasion, Kim said, "The current electoral system is a winner-takes-all system, and there is a consensus that political reform is difficult unless this electoral system is changed," adding, "It is an important task to create a political structure based on a multiparty system that allows dialogue and compromise among political forces, especially between regions and generations."

In particular, Kim stated, "When I averaged the rate of wasted votes in the last five elections under the single-member district system, it was as high as 48.5%," and added, "There is broad agreement that the proportionality and representativeness of votes need to be corrected." Regarding proportional representation, he mentioned, "To coordinate issues such as regional extinction, the gap between the metropolitan area and provinces, the Yeongho and Nam regions' problems, and conflicts between generations, the requirements for proportional representation should be strengthened, its role enhanced, and minimum regulations on proportional representation nominations should be implemented to improve its function more than now. Based on this, the number of proportional representatives should be increased."

Considering the current political structure, the issue of increasing proportional representatives needs to be raised. However, the problem remains the total number of National Assembly members. To increase proportional representatives while maintaining the current 300-member quota, either the number of constituencies must be reduced, or the long-standing wish of the political circle to expand the number of members must be pursued, which has not been done due to public opposition.

Speaker Kim said, "Basically, there is resistance to reducing constituencies, and even if that is overcome, rural areas currently have four or five counties forming one electoral district, but further consolidation is possible," and began by saying, "Among the various complex issues, the amendment proposals put forward by National Assembly members indicate that our number of members is not large overall but rather small."

Speaker of the National Assembly Kim Jin-pyo is delivering a greeting at the launch ceremony of the bipartisan political reform lawmakers' meeting held at the National Assembly on the 30th. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@

He continued, "Increasing the number of members is directly related to the public's political trust in the current National Assembly," and introduced, "Since the unreasonable electoral system must be corrected, there is a plan to increase the number by 30 to 50 members on the premise that the personnel expenses budget paid to members is frozen and does not increase for five years." Regarding this plan, Speaker Kim said, "More than 80 to 90% of members would agree."

However, Speaker Kim did not explicitly express his agreement or disagreement with the necessity of actively increasing the number of members.

He mentioned a mixed urban-rural electoral district system based on the premise that the number of members is maintained. However, regarding this, he said, "There may be new systems or various unforeseen side effects," and added, "When increasing or not increasing the number of members, alternatives should be created for each rule, and simulations should be conducted directly based on past election results."

Meanwhile, Speaker Kim also expressed the intention to promote constitutional amendment after the electoral district delimitation. He said, "I think success in constitutional amendment can be achieved by mutual concessions, with a national consensus on what is absolutely necessary to change and only changing the minimum," adding, "The opinion that a four-year renewable term is appropriate has appeared as the majority opinion in several public opinion polls." Regarding the presidential term under the four-year renewable system, he said, "The current president's term might be disadvantaged, and the implementation timing could be postponed to the next term," adding, "That requires the current president's decision."