Electoral Reform Panel Back in ActionBy Yoo Dong-Ho
Published January 11th 2004 in Korea Times
Major political parties are set to iron out differences over a long-delayed electoral system bill aimed at introducing reforms ahead of the April general elections.
The Special Committee for Political Reform will reconvene Thursday to tackle key pending issues, but officials fear it will be hampered because representatives from each party are expected to only focus on articulating partisan interests.
The special committees' first round of talks on political reform proposals were disrupted last December by contention over the number of lawmakers in the Assembly.
The majority Grand National Party (GNP) and other opposition parties have agreed to increase the number of lawmakers to 289 from the current 273, but they want to keep the number of those elected under the proportional representation system at 46.
They also intend to increase the number of residents that currently define an electoral district. According to current district regulations a constituency is comprised of between 90,000 and 340,000 people. Opposition parties want to increase the number to a range between 100,000 and 300,000 constituents.
The Uri Party wants to keep the total number of lawmakers at 273, including 46 seats elected under proportional representation. Uri Party lawmakers argue opposition parties are seeking to increase their number of regional representatives due mainly to their partisan interests.
The rival parties are also at odds over the voting age, in which the GNP and the United Liberal Democrats want to maintain the status quo, while the Uri and the Millennium Democratic Party have been pushing to lower the age from 20 to 19, which would enfranchise 800,000 potential voters and boost young people's participation in the political process.
The envisioned special committee session comes as GNP lawmaker Lee Jae-oh was chosen as its new chairman after former chairman Mok Yo-sang stepped down last December, taking responsibility for the ongoing dispute over the electoral system.
For the past couple of weeks, the Assembly's special committee has been crippled, as the Uri Party and its three opposition forces refused to give ground over the issue.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.