South Korea’s National Assembly appears close to passing an electoral reform bill. It seems that it would change the existing mixed-member majoritarian (MMM) system to mixed-member proportional (MMP).
I always take media reports about important details of electoral systems with caution, but it seems the list seats will be made compensatory: “Under MMP, parliamentary seats are tied to the percentage of voters’ support for political parties.”
The current system (as of 2016) has 47 non-compensatory list seats, in a 300-member assembly.
However, there is a catch. The article says, “The number of PR posts to be allocated under the MMP representation scheme will be capped at 30.” Yet there are to remain 47 list seats; how are the other 17 allocated? To the largest party, or based on vote shares without taking district wins into account (as under MMM)? I wish it were clear, as such details would make quite a difference.
Regardless, proportionality will be quite limited.
An earlier provision of the reform bill that would have provided for 75 list seats was turned down.
Maybe we can call the new system MMp. Maybe.
Thanks to FairVote Vancouver and Kharis Templeman for the tip.