7 seats to be reduced for proportional reps at 20th general elections

7 seats to be reduced for proportional reps at 20th general elections. February. 24, 2016 07:19. by 길진균기자 leon@donga.com.

The ruling Saenuri Party and the opposition Minjoo Party have reached an agreement on Tuesday to reduce the number of seats for proportional representatives from current 54 to 47 in the upcoming general elections. This is likely to fuel competition among parties to secure more seats at the National Assembly, especially with the People’s Party now in the game.

The Minjoo Party is expected to take the biggest toll. Realmeter, a polling agency, predicted that the 47 seats will be allocated by 23:15:7:2 to Saenuri, Minjoo, People’s, and Justice parties, respectively, based on current approval ratings of 41.7 percent for Saenuri, 26.7 percent for Minjoo, 11.7 percent for People’s, and 3.5 percent for Justice. 　

This means that Saenuri, which acquired 27 proportional votes in the last elections, will see their quota reduced by four seats, while the Minjoo Party will lose as many as six. The Democratic United Party, the former body of the Minjoo Party, sent 21 members to the parliament through the proportional vote in the past elections. Most of the seven seats allocated to the People’s Party seems to originally belong to Minjoo. The Justice Party will be able to send just two of its members to the National Assembly, a drop from six during the last term by its former body, the United Progressive Party. The National Assembly Act allocates remaining seats to each party that acquired 3 percent or more in popular vote, proportional to the ratings.

　

Politicians who were expecting nomination for proportional are in panic. An official from the Minjoo Party said, “Unlike the 19th general elections, both Saenuri and Minjoo parties decided to raise the ratio of female candidates to 60 percent in the upcoming elections, meaning that it will be all the more difficult for male candidates to get a seat.”