"Constitutional Number of Assembly Members Should Be Over 200"
"Proportional Representation Is by Official Title... What Official Title Does Yoon Mi-hyang Represent?"
People Power Party lawmaker Cho Kyung-tae, who sparked controversy by proposing to reduce the number of National Assembly members by 100, emphasized the need to cut the number, stating that "the number of members stipulated in the Constitution is at least 200."
On the 22nd, Cho said on KBS's 'Choi Kyung-young's Strongest Current Affairs,' "Having served five terms as a lawmaker, I have consistently felt that the number of lawmakers in our country is too high." He had also pledged to reduce the number of members when he ran for the party leadership in the recent People Power Party convention.
People Power Party leadership candidate Assemblyman Cho Kyung-tae is expressing his thoughts after completing his registration as a party leader candidate at the central party office in Yeouido, Seoul, on the 2nd. Photo by Yoon Dong-joo doso7@
He said, "When the IMF (International Monetary Fund) came, the number of our lawmakers was about 270. We worked hard then," adding, "But after the IMF ended, the number was increased by about 30 to 299, and then one more to 300. Did things improve with the increase? Aren't they always fighting every day?"
He also mentioned Germany's case of reducing the number of lawmakers. Cho said, "Around the 18th, a reform bill to reduce 100 seats was passed in the German Federal Parliament," adding, "How big a country is Germany? In such a large country, a reform bill to reduce 100 seats was passed in the German Federal Parliament."
He stressed that the number of seats should be reduced even under a medium-sized constituency system rather than a single-member district system. He said, "If you combine Songpa-gu, Gangnam-gu, and Seocho-gu, for example, there are 8 lawmakers and 3 basic local government heads, so the number of lawmakers can be significantly reduced by about 4 to 5," proposing to cut the number of lawmakers by 20-30% and abolish the 47 proportional representation seats, reducing the total number of members by 80 to 90.
Cho criticized proportional representation, saying, "Wasn't proportional representation introduced under the pretext of representing specific positions? But how can women be a position, and how can youth be a position?" He added, "How can Yoon Mi-hyang, a proportional representative lawmaker, be said to represent a position? What position does she represent?"
He also agreed with Democratic Party lawmaker Lee Tan-hee's call for a 'salary cut.' He said, "Even if not by 50%, I believe it is necessary to lower salaries to the average level of OECD_ countries," adding, "We need to compare and analyze the salaries of lawmakers in other countries."
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