Mounting voter frustration

Fix electoral system to ensure fair representation

In a democratic society, a robust voter turnout signifies an engaged populace eager to exercise their rights in selecting representatives to amplify their voices. Therefore, the high turnout during the early voting held on Friday and Saturday preceding the April 10 general elections is a positive indicator. Notably, boasting a turnout of 31.3 percent, this election marks the highest level of participation among general elections since the system’s inception in 2016.

But there is one underlying condition that must be met to make early voting a sensible system: The voting process needs to be clear and convenient enough to make sure voters cast their ballots for the candidates they had in mind without difficulties.

The early voting held on Friday and Saturday revealed a serious problem that needs to be fixed. Some voters complained that it was a frustrating experience. Their grievances centered on the ballot paper used to indicate
their preferred party.

At polling stations, each voter received two ballot papers: one to elect a representative in their electoral district and the other to designate their preferred party. The National Election Commission will utilize the results from the party ballot to allocate each political group its share of lawmakers chosen through the proportional representation system.

Voters were confused because the 51.7-centimeter-long ballot paper has names of 38 political parties, almost all of which were unheard of. Parties like the People Power Party (PPP) which is the current ruling party, and the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) were not present.

This is because those major parties registered under the names of their paper parties for the proportional representation system. The ruling party did this with its satellite party, dubbed the People’s Future Party (PFP), and the DPK with its paper party, the Democratic Coalition Party of Korea. They submitted their lists of candidates on the prop
ortional representation system under these paper parties.

Under the current system, 254 out of 300 National Assembly members are elected through direct voting from voters. The candidates who gained most votes in each electoral district are declared winners.

The way the remaining 46 Assemblymen and women are elected on the proportional representation system is a bit complicated. They are chosen based on total votes their parties won in the proportional representation voting, but the number of seats each party will get is determined by their parties’ relative performance in electoral district voting. The greater the number of seats political parties secure in electoral districts, the diminished their prospects become for obtaining seats through the proportional representation system.

Once all votes are cast, the NEC calculates each party’s ratio of votes earned against total votes cast to figure out how many parliamentary seats each of them should have. Then, the election watchdog checks how many seats each
party won in 254 electoral districts. If the number of a certain party’s seats it secured in direct voting is lower than the number of seats it was supposed to have based on the calculated ratio, the party will get more seats on the proportional representation system. In other words, parties with fewer victories in electoral districts but garnering significant support in proportional representation voting will be allotted more seats through the proportional representation system.

This complicated system was introduced to fix a representation problem in previous elections.

In the 2016 National Assembly elections, for example, then ruling Saenuri Party (the predecessor of the PPP) won 33.5 percent of votes in the proportional representation ballots, compared to the DPK’s 25.5 percent. However, the Saenuri Party secured 122 parliamentary seats, constituting 40.67 percent of the total, while the DPK claimed 123 seats, accounting for 41 percent.

In contrast, the minor Justice Party garnered 7.2 percent of the p
opular vote, yet its parliamentary representation amounted to only six seats. This tally fell significantly short of the 21 seats (equivalent to 7.2 percent of the total 300 seats) the party was expected to receive.

This representation issue popped up because the number of lawmakers selected on the proportional representation system was relatively low compared to the ones elected directly from electoral districts.

And this imbalance resulted in the over representation of major parties in the National Assembly and under representation of minor parties, like the Justice Party.

Parties sat down to fix this representation problem and agreed to introduce the current system calling for more seats for underrepresented parties.

Despite this, the representation problem was not solved because major parties took advantage of the loopholes in the current system and created paper parties to gain more seats on the proportional representation system.

If voters are not sure about whether the party they voted for is the
one they supported, democracy will be in danger. The representation problem must be fixed.

Source: Yonhap News Agency