Only half of 21st Nat’l Assembly lawmakers’ pledges fulfilled

Only half of the election pledges made by the lawmakers in the current 21st National Assembly have been fulfilled, according to a policy tracker’s analysis, Wednesday, due to partisan conflicts impeding legislators from serving their duty of improving people’s livelihoods.

According to analysis by the Korea Manifesto Center, 225 lawmakers who were elected from their constituencies have fulfilled 51.83 percent of election pledges, which they made during their election campaigns. Out of a total of 298 lawmakers, the analysis did not include lawmakers who earned their seats through the proportional representation system or refused to reveal data.

Of 9,502 pledges, 4,925 were assessed as accomplished because related laws have passed the Assembly and more than 50 percent of the related budget was implemented.

On the other hand, 4,002 pledges, or 42.12 percent, were assessed as ongoing, as they failed to meet those conditions. Since the 21st Assembly is set to close on May 29 and the general elections will take place on April 10, chances are high that most of those pledges will not be fulfilled during this term.

Among all pledges, 78.4 percent were about lawmakers’ constituencies, mostly about local development projects. On the other hand, only 14.94 percent were about legislation. The center said this shows that lawmakers showed interest mostly in securing budgets for local development rather than their duty of legislation during their activities in the Assembly.

By region, Gwangju showed the highest fulfillment rate with 66.86 percent, followed by Incheon with 63.43 percent and South Chungcheong Province with 58.33 percent. However, the numbers for Gangwon Province and Busan remained at 44.74 percent and 45.2 percent, respectively.

The 21st Assembly’s pledge fulfillment percentage was higher than the previous 20th with 46.8 percent and 19th with 51.24 percent, but the center noted that the number managed to top the 50 percent mark.

The center attributed the absence of a supervisory system on lawmakers’ election pledges to the low fulfillment rate, saying “parties which recommend candidates had no system for monitoring and assessing candidates’ pledges.”