Top Democratic Party officials including chairman Rep. Lee Hae-chan speak at a party meeting on Friday. Yonhap
The ruling Democratic Party will join a coalition proportional representative party in the April 15 general election, the party said Friday.

In the vote to decide whether to join the coalition, nearly three-quarters of party members with voting rights supported the idea.

According to the party, 74.1 percent of those who voted approved of the plan. Of the party’s 789,868 members with voting rights, 30.6 percent or 241,559 took part in the vote.

The idea of joining the proportional representation coalition surfaced some weeks ago after the main opposition United Future Party established a sister party for proportional votes.

Of the 300 National Assembly seats, 47 are proportional representative seats.

Although the Democratic Party heavily criticized the main opposition for abusing the recently revised elections laws, the idea of launching its own proportional party, or joining a progressive coalition gained momentum after simulations showed that the conservative bloc would gain a majority in the National Assembly.

Despite the Democratic Party’s decision, the matter of forming the coalition remains far from resolved.

It remains unclear which other parties will be joining the coalition. The leaders of Justice Party have stated that the party will not be joining the coalition, while the party formed by those who broke away from defunct opposition parties, including the Bareunmirae Party and the Party for Democracy and Peace, are split on the issue.

By Choi He-suk (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)