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The political parties finalized their nominations for regional candidates and announced their party list for the proportional part of the general election. The Grand National Party selected 50 candidates, the United Liberal Democrats 40, while the Liberty Forward Party, Democratic Labor Party and the Party for Advanced Korea each chose 10. Voters will hit polling stations on April 9 and cast one vote for the candidate running in their constituency and one more for a political party based on the names, faces and credentials of its list.
But a look at the list of each party makes one wonder why the proportional representation system was implemented in the first place. The UDP¡¯s co-chairmen Sohn Hak-kyu and Park Sang-cheon made sure people who supported them and people they know were included on the party list. Sohn even included the co-chairman of his supporters group, a former colleague in charge of small and mid-sized businesses and even a family member of a close friend. Park succeeded in including among the UDP¡¯s top 20 list candidates five former Democratic Party lawmakers or former party executives.
At the same time, people loyal to former presidential candidate Chung Dong-young, who form the largest faction in the UDP in terms of numbers, were completely neglected. Knowing the right people was the prime factor in getting included on the party list. This was so obvious in the nomination process that Chung¡¯s supporters called it ¡°a disaster that wiped out their entire household.¡± It would be no exaggeration to say that the proportional representation system has become the private fiefdom of a party leader. Even Park Jae-seung, chairman of the UDP¡¯s screening committee, said there were many things he was not satisfied with.
The GNP posted a social activist supporting poor people, another activist who overcame leprosy, and a handicapped candidate in the top five slots in its list, seeking to win the votes of the underprivileged. But all other slots on the list went to the people closest to President Lee Myung-bak. Four people, including the co-chairman of President Lee¡¯s campaign committee and the chief secretariat to Lee when he was president-elect, have been assured National Assembly seats through proportional representation.
Proportional representation was implemented with the aim of allowing a wider range of people from different areas of society to be represented in the National Assembly, while seeking to respect the votes cast in support of not only the first in any constituency but for those who ranked below second place. In a country like ours, where votes are heavily biased in favor of one political party according to region, proportional representation can be a remedy. During the 15th to 17th general elections combined, the GNP won 4.4 times more votes in the Gyeongsang provinces than the Democratic Party and others, while the Democratic Party and others won 19 times more votes than the GNP in the Jeolla provinces. Yet it is difficult to find efforts to overcome this regionalism in the way the proportional representation system has been put to use this time. In the case of the UDP, seven people from the Jeolla region are among the top 20 party list candidates, while only five come from the Gyeongsang region. The same goes for the GNP, which has twice as many party list candidates from the Gyeongsang region (10) than those from the Jeolla provinces (5) ranked in the top 27, which are the most promising slots.
If the proportional representation system continues to be abused this way, calls for its abolition cannot be far behind.
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