▲ The Solidarity for Proportional Democracy organizes a forum on December 7 in downtown Seoul on the subject of 'political empowerment of workers and electoral systems'.(Yang Woo-ram)

What is commonly found in the countries where the union density is higher, working hours are shorter, the ratio of low wage workers is smaller is that these countries adopt the 'party-list proportional representation electoral system'. The party-list proportional representation electoral system distributes the seats of the elected body to the political parties in proportion to the result of all votes cast in the elections. The 'mixed member(or additional member) proportional representation electoral system' that Korea adopts is that voters have two votes, one for their single-member precinct and another for the party.

In the wake of the political crisis due to the Park Geun-hye & Choi Soon-sil gate, the forum called for the whole society to join the reform campaign for the current electoral system. As the current electoral system rewards major established parties and penalizes minor new parties, the votes cast were not properly reflected in the elected body such as the parliament. "The result of distorted representation in the elected body excludes the workers and socially vulnerable groups from the politics", said Ha Seung-soo, Co-chairman of the Solidarity for Proportional Democracy.

reported by Yang Woo-ram
translated by Kim Sung-jin

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