Kim Tae-nyeon, acting leader of the Democratic Party of Korea and the members of the party’s Supreme Council bow and apologize after stepping down for their responsibility in the utter defeat in the April 7 by-elections at the National Assembly on April 8. Yonhap News

The 180-seat majority in the National Assembly has been cited as the fundamental reason for the Democratic Party of Korea’s defeat in the April 7 by-elections. The people granted the ruling party a powerful parliamentary authority in the twenty-first parliamentary elections last year, but in just a year, the same people harshly judged the ruling party, ironically showing that the ruling party failed to properly use or rather misused the power of 180 seats in the National Assembly. Drunk with the voices of their strong supporters and the power of the majority in the National Assembly, the ruling party was absorbed in getting rid of long-established irregularities and reforms in the Prosecution Service, displaying legislative activities that only went “one way.” Eventually, the omnipotent power of 180 seats made the ruling party arrogant, which forced them to face a crisis instead of an opportunity with a presidential election approaching next year.

The 180 seats that the Democratic Party won in the parliamentary elections a year ago was the largest number of seats obtained by any one political party since democracy was re-established in 1987. People voiced concerns early on as the Democratic Party seized strong parliamentary power after taking over Cheongwadae and the central and local governments. First, there was the problem of “trickery” the Democratic Party engaged in to secure 180 seats. The party created a “satellite party” for seats by proportional representation, voluntarily rendering ineffective the amendment of the Public Official Election Act, which it had promoted, claiming that they could not let the United Future Party (the current People Power Party) become the largest party in the National Assembly. It criticized the opposition party for creating another organization to secure seats by proportional representation, then followed suit. In the process, it parted with a strategic partner, the Justice Party.

From the start, twenty-first National Assembly was run solo by the Democratic Party. They chose a ruling party lawmaker to chair the Legislation and Judiciary Committee claiming that it was because the opposition party would not accept the position. The ruling party ended up seizing the chairs of all standing committees in the National Assembly. The Democratic Party single-handedly passed the three bills on real estate leases and the Act on the Establishment and Operation of the Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials without any discussions with the opposition party. The “politics of cooperation with the opposition,” which Lee Nak-yeon the party leader at the time and floor leader Kim Tae-nyeon had pledged, was hard to find. The Democratic Party insisted that “Reforms are the will of the people, who chose us,” and led the National Assembly by relying on the power from the majority of seats.

But the three bills on real estate leases ended up raising the rent and jeonse (lease on a lump-sum deposit) prices. Prosecutorial reforms ended in a battle between Choo Mi-ae (former justice minister) and Yoon Seok-youl (former prosecutor general). Eventually, it led to the resignation of Yoon. The ruling party came under fire for being too absorbed in the political agenda of prosecutorial reforms and neglecting the lives of the people.

The public, which had chosen the Democratic Party for a stable government, turned its back a year later. One senior lawmaker of the Democratic Party said over the phone on April 8, “The opportunity of 180 seats came back as a threat.”