Anchor: Main opposition Democratic Party(DP) Chairman Lee Jae-myung on Monday expressed the party’s intention to effectively maintain the semi-mixed-member proportional representation system for the upcoming general elections and create a proxy satellite party to secure more seats. The People Power Party called Lee's decision non-democratic.
Kim Bum-soo has more.

Report: Main opposition Democratic Party(DP) chief Lee Jae-myung says his party supports the contentious semi-mixed-member proportional representation system, or MMPR, for the upcoming elections.

Lee on Monday held an emergency news conference during a visit to the May 18 National Cemetery in the southwestern city of Gwangju, announcing his plan to stick with the existing electoral system and create a proxy satellite party to win more seats in the April general elections.

[Sound bite: Democratic Party Chair Lee Jae-myung (Korean-English)]
"Dear citizens, the semi-MMPR election system was a step forward yet to be perfected. Instead of returning to the past, we will seek ways to find election victory within the MMPR election rules." 

In a controversial move ahead of the 2020 general elections, the then-ruling DP and minor parties passed revisions to election regulations establishing the MMPR rules, under which parliamentary seats are linked to the percentage of voters' support for parties.

Instead of boosting the presence of underrepresented minor parties in the proportional representation category as intended, the mixed-member PR scheme led to the creation of minor satellite parties by major parties that served as proxies in a bid to gain more seats.

Lee's announcement on Monday came amid ruling and opposition debates over whether to return to the previous parallel PR voting or maintain the mixed member rules.

Ruling People Power Party(PPP) leader Han Dong-hoon said Lee's decision is non-democratic, criticizing the DP for allowing Lee alone to make a party decision on election rules that is not concerned with fairly representing the public but simply with what is most advantageous for himself and the party.

Han said the 2020 revision to adopt the mixed-member proportional representation was only the result of a collusion between the DP and the minor Justice Party as well as others.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.