Four political parties and a group of lawmakers preparing to launch a new party have reached agreement on a fast-tracked electoral reform bill, paving the way for the National Assembly to pass the contentious legislation.
  
The group, known as the "four plus one" consultation body, is made up of the ruling Democratic Party, the Bareunmirae Party, the Justice Party, the Party for Democracy and Peace and the group of lawmakers.

The five sides on Monday agreed to keep the current 300 National Assembly seats, with 253 going to the winners of elections in constituencies and the remaining 47 to proportional parliamentary seats.

Of those 47, up to 30 seats will be distributed under a mixed-member proportional representation scheme in which parliamentary seats are tied to the percentage of voter support for parties. 

The five sides decided not to introduce a controversial system that would allow candidates who lost by a narrow margin in elections in constituencies to run for proportional seats.

The main opposition Liberty Korea Party is not part of the consultative group as it opposes the election reform bill.