Let redistricting committee decide if political parties cannot

This year was a perfect timing for political and four major reform tasks (public sector, labor, finance and education), as the Park Geun-hye administration was in the third year of its single, five-year term and had no major elections. However, the only achievement it has made so far is reforming the pension system for government employees. The political circles are now preoccupied with next year`s parliamentary elections. Even the presidential office Cheong Wa Dae and the ruling Saenuri Party have also plunged into political mudslinging over candidate nominations. Saenuri`s chief Kim Moo-sung is boycotting his duty amid a clash with Cheong Wa Dae. Every politician is blindly seeking power and preoccupied with his or her own political survival.

What is even more lamentable is that the political circles have not been able to making election rules. In accordance with the Constitutional Court`s ruling that the current population deviation of up to 3 to 1 in constituencies must be readjusted to up to 2 to 1, it is inevitable to redraw electoral districts before next year`s general elections. An independent redistricting committee under the National Election Commission, the state election watchdog, said earlier that if the ruling and opposition parties failed to come up with their proposal by today, it would conclude its own plan with 244 to 249 parliamentary seats, compared with the current 246 seats, excluding proportional representation seats. However, the parties have not even reached a conclusion on the standard for determining the numbers of locally elected and proportional representative seats. On Thursday, the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) rejected the Saenuri`s offer of "two plus two" negotiations involving the chairmen and floor leaders of the rival parties. On the same day, ruling and opposition lawmakers elected in rural and provincial districts started a sit-in protest in an attempt to protect their districts.

If the number of constituencies is readjusted in accordance with the Constitutional Court`s ruling, urban areas will have 10 more electoral districts, while rural areas will lose the same number of constituencies. It is inevitable to merger constituencies in rural areas, resulting in less representation of those regions. While the ruling party proposes to increase the number of direct-election constituencies while reducing the number of proportional representatives, Moon Jae-in, the NPAD leader, is adamantly opposed to a reduction in proportional representation. There is no way to maintain the current level of rural and proportional representation without increasing the number of National Assembly seats.

The redistricting committee is supposed to submit its proposal to the National Assembly by September 13. Under the election law, political parties must conclude a final redistricting plan by November 13. If the parties are unable to reach a compromise, they should leave the task up to the redistricting committee and follow its decision. That is a political reform.