Na Kyung-won pushes 'Yong Hye-in prevention bill' to block satellite party subsidy loophole

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won announced Tuesday she would introduce an amendment to the Political Funds Act to block a loophole that allows lawmakers elected through proportional satellite parties to rejoin their original parties and receive state subsidies.

The move directly targets Yong Hye-in, a Basic Income Party lawmaker whom President Lee Jae Myung nominated as minister of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.

Na has labeled the bill the "satellite party taxpayer money grab prevention act" — or simply the "Yong Hye-in prevention bill."

Under current law, parties that failed to win at least 2 percent of the vote in the most recent general election can still receive a fixed 2 percent share of total routine state subsidies if they hold seats in the National Assembly and won at least 0.5 percent of the vote in the most recent local elections.

The Basic Income Party secured proportional representation seats in the previous general election by running under satellite parties — the Together Citizens' Party and the Democratic Alliance — before being expelled and then rejoining to register as a parliamentary party.

The party then cleared the 0.5 percent threshold by winning 0.99 percent of the proportional vote in the June 3 local elections, making it eligible to receive about 277.09 million won ($202,000) in routine state subsidies in the third quarter of this year and roughly 1.1 billion won annually.

Na criticized the arrangement, saying "a party that cannot even win the support of 1 percent of the public is using a single seat obtained through a satellite party scheme to pocket 1.1 billion won of taxpayer money every year — about 4 billion won over four years." She called it "a loss of public funds dressed up as law" that "makes a mockery of representative democracy" and "a blatant misuse of taxpayer money."

Na raised the same issue at a plenary session of the National Assembly's Budget and Accounts Committee on Monday, telling Kang Dong-wan, acting secretary-general of the National Election Commission, that Yong's cabinet nomination was "a constitutional disaster born of the backroom deal on the semi-linked proportional representation system." She said it had become customary for proportional lawmakers nominated as cabinet members to resign their seats so the next candidate on the list could take over, and argued that Yong's refusal to do so was driven by fear that resigning would strip the Basic Income Party of its parliamentary status and cut off its annual 1.1 billion won in party subsidies.

Na also urged the National Election Commission to actively push for reforms, saying that "if a flawed electoral system is wasting public funds and distorting representative democracy, the commission must take the initiative to seek improvements." Acting Secretary-General Kang said he would review the matter.

The amendment Na is introducing would exclude from the fixed 2 percent subsidy allocation any lawmaker elected as a proportional representative of a satellite or other party — rather than as a candidate of their own party — who subsequently joined, rejoined, or merged into that party, even if the party meets the local election vote-share requirement.

Na said the semi-linked proportional representation system, which the Democratic Party pushed through via a fast-track deal, "has become a channel for producing political tricks and wasting taxpayer money rather than representing the will of the people." She said she would work to pass the bill quickly to "correct the unjust tax exploitation that exploits the system's blind spots and restore the constitutional order and the value of fairness."

Meanwhile, Yong said Monday she would retain her proportional representative seat, bowing her head and asking for understanding, citing the difficulty that her resignation would force the Basic Income Party to lose its parliamentary status.

Under the National Assembly Act, lawmakers may concurrently serve as prime minister or cabinet minister.

However, it has become customary for proportional lawmakers nominated as cabinet members to resign their seats so the next candidate on the list can take over, minimizing any gap in legislative representation.

If Yong were to resign, Ko Jae-soon, former secretary-general of the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation and a Democratic Party member who is next on the Democratic Alliance's proportional list, would succeed to the seat.