South Korea’s legislature is likely to increase its number of parliamentary seats next year, after the Constitutional Court ordered lawmakers to redraw some constituency boundaries.
On Oct. 30, justices at the nation’s highest court ordered lawmakers to amend the districts by December 2015, citing a need to change the current situation in which some legislators represented far more voters than others. Justices said new laws should keep population ratios among districts below 2-to-1.
But the redistricting process is expected to be highly politicized, as lawmakers with vested interests in long-held constituencies are likely to resist changes to their districts.
Political observers say that the only option that would both minimize political bickering and satisfy the Constitutional Court order is to increase the number of parliamentary seats.
Professor Lee Jun-han of Incheon University said Monday that in the worst-case scenario, lawmakers would “collude” and simply remap voting districts so that districts could meet the new population rules.
As legislators will want to retain their voter bases, few expect electoral reforms to be implemented or external experts to step in to prevent gerrymandering.
Another expert wishing to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue said lawmakers from the country’s main parties shared an interest in maintaining the current order. South Korea’s 300-seat National Assembly is dominated by the governing Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy. The two parties hold 288 seats between them.
“Any revision to the current voting districts is a risk to the established parties,” he said. “(The Saenuri Party and the NPAD) won’t like it.”
But because the parties cannot ignore the Constitutional Court, officials are thought to be likely to come up with a plan that retains their hold on the parliament ― such as increasing the number of seats so that the two parties keep over 90 percent of them.
Analysts pointed out that an increase in the number of lawmakers would increase the parliamentary representation of city dwellers.
“An increase in the number of lawmakers is the only scheme that will maintain the balance of both urban and rural interests in the national legislature after the recent court order,” said Seo Bok-kyung, a senior researcher at the Sogang University Institute of Political Studies.
Critics of the Constitutional Court ruling have said the new population regulations would increase parliamentary seats in the more densely populated urban areas such as Seoul and Incheon at the cost of legislative seats in farming regions.
By Jeong Hunny (hj257@heraldcorp.com)
