After National Committee Approval, Report to the Election Commission to Conclude
The Distorted Semi-Linked Proportional Representation System That Gave Rise to 'Member Lending'
Handonghun, Emergency Response Committee Chairman of the People Power Party, and Jo Hyejeong, Party Leader of the People’s Future Party, along with other attendees, are taking a commemorative photo at the 'People’s Future Central Party Founding Convention' held on the 23rd at the People Power Party headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul. Photo by Kim Hyunmin kimhyun81@
The People Power Party has resolved to convene a national committee meeting to merge by absorption with its proportional satellite party, the Future of the People. This comes just two months after the founding of the Future of the People.
On the morning of the 18th, the People Power Party held its 14th Standing National Committee meeting and conducted an automated response service (ARS) vote among 61 standing national committee members. The agenda was to convene the national committee for the absorption merger with the Future of the People. Of the 61 members, 43 (70.49%) participated in the vote, and all voted in favor, so the national committee will be convened on the 22nd.
Lee Heon-seung, chairman of the People Power Party’s national committee, issued a notice to convene the standing national committee the day before to hold a national committee meeting to resolve the absorption merger with the Future of the People. An ARS vote will also be conducted at the national committee to decide on the merger. If the merger is approved, the two parties’ entrusted bodies will hold a joint meeting and then report to the National Election Commission to complete the merger process.
The Future of the People is a proportional satellite party created as a result of the ruling and opposition parties adopting the 'semi-proportional representation system' for both the 21st and 22nd National Assembly elections. The semi-proportional representation system was introduced ahead of the 21st general election with the intention of helping small parties enter the legislature. However, the introduction’s purpose was undermined when the two major parties, the United Future Party and the Democratic Party of Korea, created satellite parties to secure more seats.
In response, during the 21st National Assembly, discussions were held on abolishing the semi-proportional representation system and returning to the parallel system used until the 20th general election, as well as on introducing a regional proportional representation system, but no agreement was reached. The People Power Party criticized the complex formula of the semi-proportional representation system and advocated returning to the parallel proportional system. Failing to reach an agreement, they founded the Future of the People. The Future of the People set up an office at the People Power Party’s central headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul, proving that although the names differ, the two parties are effectively one.
The semi-proportional representation system created distorted phenomena such as 'borrowing lawmakers.' This is because the party symbols used in voting are determined by the number of incumbent lawmakers each party holds. Priority is given to parties that have at least five incumbent constituency lawmakers or that received at least 3% of the total valid votes nationwide in the previous presidential or proportional representation elections.
Initially, the People Power Party sent eight proportional representation lawmakers?Kim Geun-tae, Kim Ye-ji, Kim Eun-hee, Noh Yong-ho, Woo Shin-gu, Lee Jong-sung, Jung Kyung-hee, and Ji Seong-ho?to the Future of the People, but did not send any constituency lawmakers. The Democratic Party of Korea’s satellite party, the Democratic Union, which had more constituency lawmakers than the Future of the People, was assigned party symbol number 3, 'New Future' was assigned number 4, and the Green Justice Party, which received 3% of the vote in the last election, was assigned number 5, pushing the Future of the People to number 6. In response, the People Power Party sent additional constituency lawmakers?Kim Byung-wook, Kim Young-sik, Kim Yong-pan, Kim Hee-gon, and Lee Joo-hwan?to the Future of the People to secure party symbol number 4 and contested the election under that number.
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