Physical Blockade Fails to Stop Korean Parliament from Passing New Election Law that Will Benefit Left Wing Political Parties

The only reason the Korean National Assembly would be passing this bill would be to increase the amount of unelected left wing parliament members:

The National Assembly on Friday passed a bill for a new election system for the April general election, despite the main opposition party’s physical blockade. 

A bill to revise the Public Official Election Act, proposed by Rep. Kim Kwan-young of the Bareunmirae Party, was passed shortly after National Assembly Speaker Moon Hee-sang announced the opening of the voting session Friday evening. 

Of the 167 lawmakers who participated in the voting, 156 supported, 10 opposed and one abstained. The ruling Democratic Party (DP) lawmakers and its allies cast votes and endorsed the new election system. 

A plenary session was originally scheduled to open at 3 p.m., but lawmakers of the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) staged a protest inside the main hall of the National Assembly, effectively delaying the voting. After more than two hours of delay, Speaker Moon invoked his power to maintain order inside the legislature. While the LKP lawmakers resisted by shouting a slogan, “Step down Moon Hee-sang,” the speaker managed to sit in his seat and declared the opening of a session around 5:30 p.m. 

According to the revised election law, the number of single-member constituency seats and proportional representation (PR) seats in the 300-member legislature remain the same at 253 and 47 for the April general election. 

Of the 47 PR seats, 30 are to be apportioned using a new calculation method in which parties that fail to win enough constituency seats that correspond to their nationwide support margin could be compensated with PR seats. Smaller parties would thus be more likely to expand their seat share in the National Assembly, while the two major parties – the DP and LKP – will likely gain fewer proportional representatives.

Joong Ang Ilbo

Here is how much this bill will help the left wing parties secure more parliament seats:

Based on several recent polls, under the new rule the Justice Party would secure 15 seats, adding nine seats from the current number, while the DPK would add six seats and the LKP would lose three.

Currently, the DPK has 129 seats, while the LKP, the Bareunmirae Party and the Justice Party have 108, 28 and six seats, respectively.

Korea Times

So essentially this bill will increase the number of unelected left wing politicians into Parliament. These political parties can’t win elections to increase their parliament numbers so they depend on a proportional representation system to get more of them into office.

Another thing this bill slipped in was the decrease the voting age from 19 to 18. This will add 560,000 new voters for the upcoming April election. Considering that younger people tend to vote for liberal policies this was surely intended to increase the votes for left wing political candidates.

So why is the Korean left doing everything it can to increase its parliament members for the April election? Increasing the amount of left wing parliament members is important for future plans to change the ROK constitution and pave the way for a confederation with North Korea. Another thing to look for is the Korean left pushing for is the ability for President Moon to seek reelection instead of being capped at one five year term in office.