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Such confusion has mainly come from the new electoral system that was introduced following the passage of the relevant revision bill last December following an agreement among the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and four minor parties.
The new system is aimed at giving minor parties, which usually do not take a large number of seats in constituencies, a better chance to win proportional representation seats. The move was made in an effort to diversify the National Assembly which has been dominated by the two main parties, which take ruling and opposition positions in turn.
At the time of passage, the-then main opposition Liberty Korea Party ― now a part of the current main opposition United Future Party (UFP) ― opposed it, apparently because the change would reduce its chance of winning as many proportional representation seats as before. The ruling DPK was also in the same situation, but it pushed ahead with the passage together with the four minor parties because it needed their cooperation to pass a judiciary reform bill it had desperately wanted to introduce.
Then there emerged a possibility that the big ruling and main opposition parties could set up "satellite parties" which would have only proportional representation candidates and merge with the "parent parties" after the election.
One of politics professors who proposed the new system to the political circle said in a recent interview that another professor had raised the possibility of the creation of satellite parties during discussions, and that he and the other professors thought "what a rich imagination!"
This "imagination," however, has become a reality.
The UFP was the first to create its satellite party, named the Future Korea Party, in February. Some UFP members moved to the satellite party.
The DPK vehemently criticized the main opposition party, saying it damaged the purpose of the new electoral system and ruined politics.
Soon, however, the DPK began to think about following suit, because it was likely to lose its majority in the Assembly if the UFP and its satellite party's dirty trick worked.
After collecting opinions from party members, the DPK decided to join a liberal coalition of civic groups and several minor parties to create a separate party. It was a detour to avoid criticism for "directly creating a satellite party," but the new party, named the Civil Together, was still a de facto paper party of the DPK, because the civic groups were pro-Moon Jae-in.
The DPK's flip-flopping resulted in fierce criticism from the minor parties which had partnered with it to pass the electoral reform bills. The DPK said it was an inevitable choice as it had to respond to the main opposition's "foul play."
The only way to judge those big parties using foul play may be voters not casting their ballots for them, to show that such trickery won't work. However, the saddest part is that it does appear to work: a survey by Realmeter released March 30 showed the Civil Together gained a 29.8 percent approval rating, and the Future Korea Party, 27.4 percent. "Real" minor parties earned between 1.2 percent and 5.9 percent each. Analyses show the Civil Together and the Future Korea Party are expected to take 39 of the total 47 proportional representation seats.
The minor progressive Justice Party, which had spearheaded the passage of the electoral reform bill, kept refusing the DPK's persuasion to jointly form a satellite party ― standing firm on its principle that it wouldn't use a dirty trick to counter another dirty trick.
That sense of justice is praiseworthy. However, it has not led to high support; rather, the Justice Party is losing more ground because liberal voters, who used to pick it for proportional representation, are leaning toward the Civil Together.
Justice Party leader Sim Sang-jeung said last week, "People say the Justice Party is the biggest victim of the new electoral system. But I think the biggest victim of the two big parties' foul play is the people."
The already tattered "new" system is likely to undergo revision before the next general election, as a need for this has already been raised. Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon, who is the DPK's campaign committee co-head, said last week the Assembly will have to improve the relevant law, admitting the satellite party creations have damaged the purpose of the system.
How it will be changed is unknown yet. But one thing for sure is that it will be changed to benefit the big parties ― not the people.
