8 Out of 10 Lawmakers' Pledges Involve Regional Development or Fiscal Spending... Completion Rate at 29.93%

Korea Manifesto Center's Analysis Findings

It has been found that 8 out of 10 pledges made by representatives with local constituencies in the 22nd National Assembly require regional development or fiscal investment. Although the average amount of funding needed per Assembly member exceeded 6.6 trillion won, the actual execution rate stood at only 13%.

Chairman Jo Jung-sik and members of the National Assembly were taking a group photo for the second half of the 22nd National Assembly in front of the main building of the National Assembly on the afternoon of the 3rd. Photo by the National Assembly Press Photographers Group

On September 9, the Korea Manifesto Implementation Headquarters released the results of its analysis on the fulfillment of pledges by 237 members of the National Assembly with local constituencies. Among the 9,121 pledges presented by the 187 Assembly members who responded to the survey, the completion rate was 29.93%, which is 2.98 percentage points higher than the 26.95% in the second year of the 21st National Assembly.

The 128 members who calculated the fiscal needs required a total of 847.2164 trillion won, with an average of 6.6189 trillion won per member. Of this, 344.7116 trillion won (40.69%) had been secured, but only 111.2589 trillion won was actually executed, resulting in an execution rate of just 13.13%.

A significant proportion of high-cost pledges were related to social overhead capital (SOC) projects. Among the top 100 pledges in terms of fiscal requirements, 82 were SOC-type pledges, with 48 being related to railways alone. Many pledges were regionally targeted requests such as expediting existing national projects, route extensions, or establishment of new stations.

The Korea Manifesto Implementation Headquarters pointed out, "It is necessary to reconsider the direction of pledges, as the National Assembly is a legislative body that enacts and revises laws and reviews the national budget, not an administrative body that directly implements projects." They added, "Rather than listing locally-oriented development projects, lawmakers should focus on pledges centered on legislation and policies to address national challenges such as low growth, population decline, climate crisis, and AI transition."

They also stressed that, for large-scale fiscal pledges, "There needs to be a mechanism to publicly disclose cost estimates, fundraising methods, and project feasibility to voters from the election stage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.