Jo Kyung-tae: "Discussion on Reducing the Number of Lawmakers Should Be Conducted Together at the Full Committee"

Assemblyman Cho Kyung-tae of the People Power Party, who advocates reducing the number of National Assembly members by 100, raised his voice at the plenary committee formed to reform the electoral system, stating that discussions on reducing the number of members should also be conducted simultaneously.

On the 30th, Assemblyman Cho said through his social networking service (SNS), "The National Assembly will soon hold a plenary committee meeting to discuss the reform of the electoral district system. Unfortunately, however, the agenda items of reducing the number of members and abolishing proportional representation were not included."

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@

On the same day, the National Assembly formed the plenary committee and decided to hold a four-day in-depth debate from the 10th to the 13th of next month to discuss the electoral system reform. There are three proposals to be discussed in the plenary committee: Proposal 1 is a mixed urban-rural medium-sized electoral district system + regional and parallel proportional representation system; Proposal 2 is an open-list large electoral district system + national and parallel proportional representation system; Proposal 3 is a single-member district system + regional and semi-linked proportional representation system. The number of assembly members will be maintained at the existing 300.

Assemblyman Cho said, "If the National Assembly truly represents the people, discussions on reducing the number of members and abolishing proportional representation should also be conducted together. It is deeply regrettable and condemnable that the abolition of proportional representation and the reduction of members were not included in the electoral district reform discussions for political reform, and our people who sincerely desire true political reform must sternly reprimand the political circles."

He added, "In the United States, the population increased about 3.7 times from 92.23 million in 1910 to 339.99 million in 2023, but the number of members of Congress has not increased by a single seat, remaining at 535 members (100 in the Senate, 435 in the House) since 1911. Also, the United States does not have a proportional representation system," emphasizing the need to reduce the number of members by asking, "If our country's population had increased more than threefold, what would our National Assembly have done?"