hankyoreh

Park Won-seok, chairperson of the Justice Party’s policy committee, holds a press conference at the National Assembly on Mar. 25. (Kang Chang-kwang, staff photographer)

With the general election fast approaching, the obscuring of election issues by “satellite parties” intended to gain proportional representation seats for the two major parties has prompted a growing outcry over what many are seeing as a narrowing ability for minority parties to gain access to the National Assembly. Some are voicing fears that the polarization between the two establishment parties and their politics of deep-seated hostility could intensify amid predictions that the Democratic Party and United Future Party and their associated satellite parties may end up with more seats than before election laws were amended.

Progressive-oriented minority parties in particular have taken a direct hit from their entanglement in the Democratic Party’s strategic satellite party launches. Current numbers show minority parties being in pitiful standing. A survey of 1,000 voters aged 18 and over nationwide by Gallup Korea on Mar 17-19 (95% confidence level, ±3.1 percentage point margin of error) showed support for the Justice Party dropping down to 4% -- its lowest level since June 2018. Internal discord over participation in election coalition parties also has yet to abate.

Such is the situation for the Justice Party, which has managed to hold out amid pressure to take part in an election coalition party; things are even worse for Green Party Korea and Our Future, which declared their participation only to end up watching things go sideways.

“A lot of people have left the party over the election coalition party participation issue,” a Green Party Korea official told the Hankyoreh in a telephone interview.

“We’ve declared now that we’re going our own independent path, but the leadership definitely suffered a setback in the process,” the official added. “It was a heavy blow that left deep internal injuries.”

For Our Future, which also reversed its plans for participation, the wounds have been devastating to its aims of representing the younger generation. The Political Reform Alliance, which first proposed the coalition party idea to the Democratic Party with the participation of civic and social groups and veterans from different fields, has since limply headed toward disbanding procedures.

Chief responsibility for progressives being left in turmoil and different minority parties ending up in crisis was placed with the Democratic Party.

“The Democratic Party has laid waste to the smaller parties,” said Seo Bok-kyung, a researcher at the Sogang Institute of Political Studies.

“Some of the Democratic Party lawmakers have been using coercion, insisting that the Justice Party also had to hold a general vote among its members [taking part in the election coalition party],” she added.

“The Justice Party barely managed to withstand the typhoon, while the Green Party Korea and Our Future got swept inside of it and flung back out again. Now the minority party supporters have also been left groggy,” she explained.

Seo went on to note, “Even after the election laws were changed, the two big parties that were benefiting under the old system have been doing their utmost to neutralize the new system.”

“The most serious issue is that minority party supporters aren’t casting their votes, concluding that the big parties are just going to take everything even if they do,” she fretted.

The possibility of the two big parties sweeping up ever more seats than they had in the 20th National Assembly before the election law reforms is also being raised as a serious issue. The major parties’ launch of satellite parties has already countered the aims of the election law amendments, which were intended to resolve the issue of the two parties’ overrepresentation under the single-member constituency system and ensure that voters for minority parties would not end up “wasted.”

“‘Overrepresentation’ means getting more seats than what voters are supporting. But with the Democratic Party and United Future Party already overrepresented just in terms of local constituency seats, they can’t make off with the linked seats,” said Choi Tae-wook, a professor at the Hallym University of Graduate Studies.

“But now they’re forming satellite parties so they can capture more seats than their support levels,” he explained.

“The progress that was made toward a multi-party system has been undone. Now it’s looking like the two big parties will have more total seats than they had in the past,” he predicted.

By Seo Young-ji and Hwang Geum-bi, staff reporter

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