22nd General Election: Government and Opposition Parties Enter “Real Speed War” Over Satellite Party Creation

View larger Former leader Park Hong-geun, head of the Democratic Party of Korea’s Coalition for Democratic Reform and Progressive Elections, speaks at a press conference held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, on the morning of the 8th. 2024.02.08. On the 8th, the Newsis that the French Democratic Party began seriously working on the creation of a proportional satellite party for the April 10 general elections and urged three political parties, including the Green Justice Party, the Progressive Party and the New Progressive Alliance, and civil society parties to hold a joint conference and participate. In particular, “the unification of district candidates” was presented as a principle. There was an interpretation that it was in effect a “district sharing” proposal by ceding the district to smaller parties participating in satellite political parties. The People Power Party also decided to hold a central congress for the establishment of the proportional satellite party “People’s Future” (provisional name) on the 15th after the Lunar New Year holiday and began reviewing the nomination of the party representative. Within the party, various strategies have begun to be discussed, such as “loaning legislators” to receive the number 3 symbol, as happened in the general elections four years ago. Two months before the general elections, the “satellite parties” of the two major parties seem to once again be entering into a real speed war.

● Government and opposition parties launch a cunning strategy despite criticism of satellite parties

Click to enlarge People Power Emergency Response Committee Chairman Han Dong-hoon speaks at the People Power Emergency Response Committee meeting held at the People Power Party Central Party Headquarters in Yeouido, Seoul , on the morning of 8.02.08.2024. The group promoting the “Coalition for Democratic Reform and Electoral Progress”, which heads the satellite party of the Democratic Party Newsis, held its first press conference today at the National Assembly and proposed to “promote joint commitments for the elections generals and select talent candidates’ to the three political parties and civil society. At the same time, he also put forward the principle that “the local district coalition will pursue the spirit and principle of ‘unify the winning candidate’ to prevent the monopoly of parliamentary power by the People Power Party, securing a majority of seats”.

This is the backdrop to speculation that the Democratic Party will not nominate candidates in Goyang-gap, Gyeonggi Province, which is the constituency of Green Justice Party MP Shim Sang-jung, and Jeonju-eul, North Jeolla Province, which it is the constituency of Progressive Party MP Kang Seong-hee, in order to increase the size of the satellite party. On the 6th, leader Hong Ik-pyo also left open the possibility of discussing the possibility of a coalition of opposition constituencies, saying: “Rather than dividing the opposition, it is necessary to unite with a candidate with a high probability to win.” Potential candidates Yeo Young-guk and former Justice Party leader openly call for the Democratic Party to make concessions in their constituencies, saying, “It is difficult to accept a situation that is not (a concession).”

The Preparatory Committee for the Founding of the People’s Future, a satellite political party of the People’s Power Party, announced today: “We will hold a congress for the founding of the Central Party of the People’s Future at 11 am on the 15th.” The problem is that right now there are not enough members to fill people’s futures. A key party official said: “Among the external figures recruited by the party, we should not send them (to the People’s Future) such as former Samsung Electronics CEO Koh Dong-jin and former North Korean defector Kim Geum-hyuk, former political advisor to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs, who did not apply to be nominated as a local candidate?” There is also speculation within the party that if three-term MP Jang Je-won, who said he would not run in the general election, is installed as the leadership figure, and more active members who are not running in the general election appear around the party. Lunar New Year, the party can operate in the form of ‘borrowed legislators.’

● Government and opposition parties defer responsibility for the trick and repeat “your fault”

The two major parties continued to blame each other for the recurrence of the ‘satellite party’ incident in the 22nd general elections following the 21st general elections. Yoon Jae-ok, leader of the People Power Party, said at a party meeting this morning: “The Democratic Party is the cause of the creation of a satellite political party that has committed one foul after another, and it is something that a cow passenger would laugh as a “response to the ruling party’s foul play”. The previous day, Lee Jae-myeong, leader of the Democratic Party, refuted the accusation that the People Power Party was responsible for the creation of a satellite political party, saying: “We have no choice but to respond to the party’s foul play at power and law evasion.”

The People Power Party has been putting pressure on the Democratic Party since September last year, setting a return to a “parallel” electoral system as its party line. However, in preparation for the Democratic Party’s decision to maintain a semi-connected electoral system, People’s Future held a founding promoters’ conference on the 31st of last month and prepared for the creation of a satellite political party. This is why Congressman Lee blamed the People Power Party when he announced the retention of the semi-linked system, saying: “We will prepare an integrated proportional party that will exploit the purpose of the semi-linked system while responding to the foul play of the satellite party (of the party in power). Within the Democratic Party, it is pointed out that “Representative Lee was irresponsible in going back and forth between returning to a parallel system and maintaining a semi-connected system, calculating the pros and cons of the election.”

In December 2019, the Democratic Party, which was the ruling party, joined the remaining four governing and opposition parties, which wanted a semi-connected proportional system, to push for a reform of the electoral system in order to process the ‘High Prosecutor’s Office. classification of the Law on the Public Officials Crime Investigation Agency (Corruption Investigation Office). Then, to neutralize all this, the United Future Party (predecessor of the People Power Party), which was the main opposition party at the time, founded the “Future Korea Party” in February 2020, the first proportional satellite party in history. . The Democratic Party, belatedly discouraged, founded the Citizens’ Party a month before the elections, deepening the monopolistic structure of the two major parties.

As the possibility of satellite parties proliferating in this general election, centered around the two main parties, has increased, some have predicted that the length of the ballot paper for this general election could exceed 1 million.

22nd general election

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Journalist Shin Na-ri journari@donga.com

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