S. Korean ruling party dominates parliament as public show support towards gov't COVID-19 response
- 4 years ago
靑 출신 대거 당선, 태영호 당선... '거대양당' 체제는 못 깨
Let's take an in-depth look into this year's general election and what we can expect going forward.
We have our Oh Jung-hee joining us in the studio.
Jung-hee, wonderful to see you.
Hi, Mark.
There were some key candidates many had their eyes on in this election.
Give us a run-through of how it went for them in the key battleground districts.
For that, we'll have to start with Seoul's Jongno district.
It's a highly symbolic district because the winner of the district has widely been considered to have a higher chance of one day becoming president.
At this election, two former Prime Ministers ran for this district... and the ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Nak-yon won against his conservative rival Hwang Kyo-ahn with over 58-percent support.
Former presidential spokesperson Ko Min-jung, also running as the ruling Democratic Party candidate, won Seoul's Gwangjin-B district.
Meanwhile, Thae Gu-min, or Thae Yong-ho, will become the first-ever North Korean defector to win a seat in South Korea's National Assembly.
He was once North Korea's number-2 diplomat at the London embassy but defected to South Korea in 2016 and ran for Gangnam-A district.
Regarding the newly introduced 50-percent mixed-member proportional representation system.
It was adopted to diversify the National Assembly,... did it work?
My answer would have to be 'no.'
The system was adopted to give seats to as many different parties as possible, because the South Korean politics has been dominated by the two largest parties conservative and liberal and minor parties, up until now, didn't really have much say.
But the system didn't really work that way for this year's general election.
The largest political parties created so-called "satellite parties" that put forward candidates only for proportional representation.
So their candidates would belong to parties with different names, but basically with the same goal.
This, in turn, rather solidified the power grip of the two largest parties, and failed to diversify the parliament.
Some pundits even call this a retreat in South Korea's democracy.
It was a massive win for the ruling Democratic Party.
It was somewhat expected towards the end of the campaigning season,... but still, how are people evaluating the result?
Well, the general view is that the South Korean public chose 'stability' over 'keeping check' of the government.
That is, the nation decided to support the Moon Jae-in administration rather than challenging it.
The South Korean government seems to be successfully handling the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, so experts say the public wants to encourage the government to work harder through the pandemic.
Now obviously, the ruling party is going to be HUGE in the next National Assembly, so definitely it will give a boost to the current administration in working out state affairs. No 'lame duck' status for the president.
The ruling party will be able to pass legislation more easily bec
Let's take an in-depth look into this year's general election and what we can expect going forward.
We have our Oh Jung-hee joining us in the studio.
Jung-hee, wonderful to see you.
Hi, Mark.
There were some key candidates many had their eyes on in this election.
Give us a run-through of how it went for them in the key battleground districts.
For that, we'll have to start with Seoul's Jongno district.
It's a highly symbolic district because the winner of the district has widely been considered to have a higher chance of one day becoming president.
At this election, two former Prime Ministers ran for this district... and the ruling Democratic Party candidate Lee Nak-yon won against his conservative rival Hwang Kyo-ahn with over 58-percent support.
Former presidential spokesperson Ko Min-jung, also running as the ruling Democratic Party candidate, won Seoul's Gwangjin-B district.
Meanwhile, Thae Gu-min, or Thae Yong-ho, will become the first-ever North Korean defector to win a seat in South Korea's National Assembly.
He was once North Korea's number-2 diplomat at the London embassy but defected to South Korea in 2016 and ran for Gangnam-A district.
Regarding the newly introduced 50-percent mixed-member proportional representation system.
It was adopted to diversify the National Assembly,... did it work?
My answer would have to be 'no.'
The system was adopted to give seats to as many different parties as possible, because the South Korean politics has been dominated by the two largest parties conservative and liberal and minor parties, up until now, didn't really have much say.
But the system didn't really work that way for this year's general election.
The largest political parties created so-called "satellite parties" that put forward candidates only for proportional representation.
So their candidates would belong to parties with different names, but basically with the same goal.
This, in turn, rather solidified the power grip of the two largest parties, and failed to diversify the parliament.
Some pundits even call this a retreat in South Korea's democracy.
It was a massive win for the ruling Democratic Party.
It was somewhat expected towards the end of the campaigning season,... but still, how are people evaluating the result?
Well, the general view is that the South Korean public chose 'stability' over 'keeping check' of the government.
That is, the nation decided to support the Moon Jae-in administration rather than challenging it.
The South Korean government seems to be successfully handling the COVID-19 outbreak in the country, so experts say the public wants to encourage the government to work harder through the pandemic.
Now obviously, the ruling party is going to be HUGE in the next National Assembly, so definitely it will give a boost to the current administration in working out state affairs. No 'lame duck' status for the president.
The ruling party will be able to pass legislation more easily bec