Elections in South Korea

South Korea

This article is part of a series on the politics and government of South Korea
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Elections in South Korea are held on national level to select the President and the National Assembly. Local elections are held every four years to elect governors, metropolitan mayors, municipal mayors, and provincial and municipal legislatures.

The president is directly elected for a single five-year term by plurality vote. The National Assembly has 300 members elected for a four-year term, 253 in single-seat constituencies and 47 members by proportional representation. Each individual party willing to represent its policies in the National Assembly is qualified on the legislative (general) election if: i) the national party-vote reaches over 3.00% on proportional contest or ii) more than 5 members of the party are elected from each of their first-past-the-post election constituencies.^[1]

Since the 2016 legislative elections, South Korea has a three-party system, with two dominant parties and one major third party.^[2]^[3]

Schedule

Election

Position	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Type	National Assembly (April) Presidential (December)	None	Gubernatorial (June)	None	National Assembly (April)	Presidential (December)
President	President	None				President
National Assembly	All seats	None			All seats	None
Provinces, cities and municipalities	None		All positions	None

Inauguration

Position	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016	2017
Type	National Assembly (July)	Presidential (February)	Gubernatorial (July)	None	National Assembly (July)	None
President	None	February 25	None
National Assembly	July 3	None			July 3	None
Provinces, cities and municipalities	None		July 1	None

Latest elections

2016 legislative election

Main article: South Korean legislative election, 2016

Summary of the 13 April 2016 South Korean National Assembly election results^[4]^[5]
Parties		Local seats	±	Block seats	±	Constituency votes	%	PR block votes	%	Total seats	±
	Minjoo Party of Korea (더불어민주당) (MPK)¹	110	4	13	8	8,881,369	37.0%	6,069,744	25.5%	123	4
	Saenuri Party (새누리당) (SP)²	105	25	17	10	9,200,690	38.3%	7,960,272	33.5%	122	35
	People's Party (국민의당) (PP)	25	(new)	13	(new)	3,565,451	14.9%	6,355,572	26.7%	38	(new)
	Justice Party (정의당) (JP)³	2	5	4	2	395,357	1.6%	1,719,891	7.2%	6	7
	Christian Liberal Party (기독자유당) (CLP)	0	(new)	0	(new)	1,376	0.0%	626,853	2.6%	0	(new)
	Minjoo Party (민주당) (MP)⁴	0	(new)	0	(new)	17,034	0.1%	209,872	0.9%	0	(new)
Other parties		0		0		257,879	1.1%	818,773	3.4%	0
Independents		11	8	N/A		1,683,264	7.0%	N/A		11	8
Total		253	7	47	7	24,002,420	100.0%	23,760,977	100.0%	300
Turnout: 58.0%^[6]

Seat changes are compared to previous election, not the outgoing Assembly
¹ Comparison based on 2012 Democratic United Party result
² Comparison includes members elected in 2012 for the Liberty Forward Party
³ Comparison based on 2012 Unified Progressive Party result
⁴ Non-parliamentary grouping: not to be confused with the larger Minjoo Party of Korea, more usually referred to as the Minjoo Party

2014 local election

Main article: South Korean local elections, 2014

2012 presidential election

Main article: South Korean presidential election, 2012

Summary of the 19 December 2012 South Korean presidential election results
Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Park Geun-hye	Saenuri Party	15,773,128	51.55
	Moon Jae-in	Democratic United Party	14,692,632	48.02
	Kang Ji-won	Independent	53,303	0.17
	Kim Soon-ja	Independent	46,017	0.15
	Kim So-yeon	Independent	16,687	0.05
	Park Jong-sun	Independent	12,854	0.04
Invalid/blank votes			126,838	–
Total			30,721,459	100
Registered voters/turnout			40,507,842	75.84
Source: National Election Commission

Summary of past elections

Presidential elections

Winning party ideology: Conservative · Liberal · Independent

	#	Year	Winner	2nd	3rd	Notes
First Republic
President and Vice President elected indirectly by the National Assembly^[7]
	1	1948	Syngman Rhee NARRKI (91.8%)	Kim Koo Korea Independence (6.7%)		In the vice-presidential election, Yi Si-yeong (NARRKI) won over Kim Koo by 57.4% to 33.0%.
President and Vice President elected by popular vote
	2	1952	Syngman Rhee Liberal (74.6%)	Cho Bong-am Independent (11.4%)	Yi Si-yeong Democratic Nationalist (10.9%)	The election took place during the Korean War. In the vice-presidential election, independent Ham Tae-young won the election with 41.3%, defeating Liberal candidate Lee Beom-seok (25.5%) and Democratic Nationalist Chough Pyung-ok (8.1%).
	3	1956	Syngman Rhee Liberal (70.0%)	Cho Bong-am Independent (30.0%)		In the vice-presidential election, Democratic Party candidate Chang Myon defeated Lee Ki-poong (Liberal) by 46.4% to 44.0%.
	–	Mar 1960	Syngman Rhee Liberal (100%)			Rhee re-elected unopposed due to the death of his Democratic Party opponent Chough Pyung-ok. In the vice-presidential election, Lee Ki-poong (Liberal) won with 79.2% over Chang Myon (Democratic) with 17.5%. The results of both elections were annulled as fraudulent after the April Revolution.
Second Republic
President elected indirectly by both houses of the National Assembly; Vice Presidency abolished
	4	Aug 1960	Yun Bo-seon Democratic (82.2%)	Kim Chang-sook (Independent) (11.5%)		The only presidential election of the Second Republic.
Third Republic
President elected by popular vote
	5	1963	Park Chung-hee Democratic Republican (46.6%)	Yun Bo-seon Civil Rule (45.1%)		First election after the May 16 coup.
	6	1967	Park Chung-hee Democratic Republican (46.6%)	Yun Bo-seon New Democratic (40.9%)
	7	1971	Park Chung-hee Democratic Republican (53.2%)	Kim Dae-jung New Democratic (45.3%)
Fourth Republic
President elected by the National Council for Reunification
	8	1972	Park Chung-hee Democratic Republican (100%)			First election after the October Yushin. Park re-elected unopposed.
	9	1978	Park Chung-hee Democratic Republican (100%)			Park re-elected unopposed.
	10	1979	Choi Kyu-hah Independent (100%)			First election after Park Chung-hee's assassination. Acting President Choi elected as President unopposed.
	11	1980	Chun Doo-hwan Independent (100%)			First election after the coup d'état of December Twelfth. Chun elected unopposed.
Fifth Republic
President elected indirectly
	12	1981	Chun Doo-hwan Democratic Justice (90.2%)	DKP Yu Chi-song Democratic Korea (7.7%)		The only presidential election of the Fifth Republic.
Sixth Republic
President elected by first-past-the-post popular vote with single-term limit
	13	1987	Roh Tae-woo Democratic Justice (46.6%)	Kim Young-sam Reunification Democratic (28.0%)	Kim Dae-jung Peace and Democracy (27.0%)	First free and fair direct presidential election in South Korean history.^[8]
	14	1992	Kim Young-sam Democratic Liberal (42.0%)	Kim Dae-jung Democratic (33.8%)	Chung Ju-yung United People's (16.3%)
	15	1997	Kim Dae-jung National Congress (40.3%)	Lee Hoi-chang Grand National (38.7%)	NPP Lee In-je New People (19.2%)
	16	2002	Roh Moo-hyun Millennium Democratic (48.9%)	Lee Hoi-chang Grand National (46.6%)
	17	2007	Lee Myung-bak Grand National (48.7%)	Chung Dong-young United New Democratic (26.1%)	Lee Hoi-chang Independent (15.1%)
	18	2012	Park Geun-hye Saenuri (51.6%)	Moon Jae-in Democratic United (48.0%)

Legislative elections

Winning party: Conservative · Liberal

1946 – 1948 – 1950 – 1954 – 1958 – 1960 – 1963 – 1967 – 1971 – 1973 – 1978 – 1981 – 1985 – 1988

#	Year			Parties (in order of seats)
14	1992	Democratic Liberal Party	Minority (149/299)	Democratic Liberal (149) Democratic (97) United People's (31) New Political (1) Independents (21)
15	1996	New Korea Party	Minority (139/299)	New Korea (139) National Congress (79) United Liberal Democrats (50) United Democratic (15) Independents (5)
16	2000	Grand National Party	Minority (133/273)	Grand National (133) Millennium Democratic (115) United Liberal Democrats (17) Democratic People's (2) New Korea (1) Independents (5)
17	2004	Uri Party	Majority (152/299)	Uri Party (152) Grand National (121) Democratic Labor (10) Millennium Democratic (9) United Liberal Democrats (4) National Alliance 21 (1) Independents (2)
18	2008	Grand National Party	Majority (153/299)	Grand National (153) United Democratic (81) Liberty Forward (18) Pro-Park (14) Democratic Labor (5) Creative Korea (3) Independents (25)
19	2012	Saenuri Party	Majority (152/300)	Saenuri (152) Democratic United (127) Unified Progressive (13) Liberty Forward (5) Independents (3)
20	2016	Minjoo Party of Korea	Minority (123/300)	Minjoo (123) Saenuri (122) People's (38) Justice (6) Independents (11)

Local elections

Notes

↑ Representation System(Elected Person), the NEC, Retrieved on April 10, 2008
↑ "People's Party opens the way to a real three party system". The Hankyoreh. 15 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
↑ "Minority People's Party steals show: Ahn's Party holds balance of power as three party system dawns". The Korea Herald. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
↑ "4.13 총선" (in Korean). Naver News. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
↑ "개표진행상황" (in Korean). Republic of Korea National Election Commission. 14 April 2016. Retrieved 14 April 2016.
↑ "20대 총선 잠정투표율 58.0%…19대보다 3.8%p↑" (in Korean). Yonhap News. 13 April 2016. Retrieved 13 April 2016.
↑ Lee (1984), p. 378.
↑ Kil, Byung-Ok (2001). Security Policy Dynamics: Effects of Contextual Determinants to South Korea. Ashgate. p. 58. South Korea's political forms had been authoritarian during the Cold War and the first free and fair presidential election was held in 1987.

References

Nahm, A.C. (1996). Korea: A history of the Korean people (rev. ed.). Seoul: Hollym. ISBN 1-56591-070-2.
Lee, Il-cheong (이일청) (1993). 인명국사대사전 (Inmyeong guksa daesajeon, Unabridged biographical dictionary of Korean history. Seoul: Goryeo Munhaksa.
Lee, Ki-baik (1984). A new history of Korea (rev ed.). Seoul: Ilchokak. ISBN 89-337-0204-0.

External links

Overview of candidates, parties and outcomes of South Korean elections since 1952 (with minor flaws like 이시영 missing in the 1952 page and wrong year of Park's resignation in the 1960 page)
Comment on the October 26, 2005 by-election results

Elections and referendums in South Korea

Presidential elections	1948 1952 1956 1960 (Mar) 1960 (Aug) 1963 1967 1971 1972 1978 1979 1980 1981 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007 2012 2017

Legislative elections	1946 1948 1950 1954 1958 1960 1963 1967 1971 1973 1978 1981 1985 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016

Local elections	1952 1956 1960 1991 1995 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018

By-elections	1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Referendums	1962 1969 1972 1975 1980 1987

Elections in Asia

Sovereign states	Afghanistan Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Bangladesh Bhutan Brunei Cambodia China Cyprus East Timor (Timor-Leste) Egypt Georgia India Indonesia Iran Iraq Israel Japan Jordan Kazakhstan North Korea South Korea Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Lebanon Malaysia Maldives Mongolia Myanmar Nepal Oman Pakistan Philippines Qatar Russia Saudi Arabia Singapore Sri Lanka Syria Tajikistan Thailand Turkey Turkmenistan United Arab Emirates Uzbekistan Vietnam Yemen

States with limited recognition	Abkhazia Nagorno-Karabakh Northern Cyprus Palestine South Ossetia Taiwan

Dependencies and other territories	British Indian Ocean Territory Christmas Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Hong Kong Macau

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