1963 South Korean presidential election

1963 South Korean presidential election

←  1960 15 October 1963 1967  →

Nominee Park Chung Hee Yun Po-sun Oh Chaeo-yong Party Democratic Republican Civil Rule Independent Popular vote 4,702,640 4,546,614 408,664 Percentage 46.65% 45.10% 4.05%   Nominee Byeon Yeong-tae Ching I-sok Party Righteous Citizens Party New Development Party Popular vote 224,443 198,837 Percentage 2.23 1.97

Results by municipal-level division Results by provincial-level division

Dominant areas by city and county

President before election Park Chung Hee (acting) Democratic Republican Elected President Park Chung Hee Democratic Republican

Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 15 October 1963. ^[1] They were the first elections since the 1961 May Coup, and the first during the Third Republic. The result was a narrow victory for the acting incumbent and leader of the governing military Supreme Council for National Reconstruction, Park Chung Hee, who received 47% of the vote, securing a transition to civilian rule under his Democratic Republican Party. Voter turnout was 85%. ^{[2] [3]}

The elections were marked by a number of irregularities. ^[4]

Background

General Park Chung Hee, who had led the military government of South Korea since his coup in 1961, agreed to return the power to civil politicians on 8 April 1963, at the same time as announcing he would run for the presidency of the new civilian government. This was after he announced his plans to extend the military rule for another four years, to which United States reacted by threatening to cease all economic aid.

Nominations

Military

The military formed the Democratic Republican Party in February, and Park Chung Hee, who had officially retired from military service the day before, accepted DRP nomination for president in October.

On 3 September, members of the military that were critical of Park's dictatorial behaviour split and formed the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), nominating former Chief of Staff of the Army and former interim prime minister Song Yo-chan for president. Members of the party were oppressed by the government for doing this. Song later withdrew and endorsed Yun Po-sun.

Civilian

Civilian politicians were deeply divided into multiple parties rather than unifying against Park. On 14 May, Former President Yun Po-sun and his followers founded the Civil Rule Party (CRP), which nominated Yun as its presidential candidate. Also claiming to represent the civilian politicians was the New Politics Party (NPP), which nominated former Prime Minister Heo Jeong as its candidate.

When it became clear that Park would win easily if both candidates ran, Yun suggested that the civilians unite under one party, which the NPP agreed to. The People's Party (PP) was officially founded in September, uniting the CRP, NPP and Democratic Friendship Party of former Prime Minister Lee Beom-seok. However, after failing to reach an agreement on whether to nominate Yun or Heo for president, on 13 September, the Civil Rule Party split from the PP and officially re-nominated Yun for president. The factions of Heo and Lee, which remained in the PP, nominated Heo.

On 2 October, Heo withdrew his bid for presidency and endorsed Yun, hoping to help defeat Park. ^{[5] [6]}

Results

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Park Chung Hee	Democratic Republican Party	4,702,640	46.65
	Yun Po-sun	Civil Rule Party	4,546,614	45.10
	Oh Chaeo-yong  [ ko ]	Independent	408,664	4.05
	Byeon Yeong-tae	Righteous Citizens Party	224,443	2.23
	Ching I-sok	New Development Party	198,837	1.97
Total			10,081,198	100.00
Valid votes			10,081,198	91.35
Invalid/blank votes			954,977	8.65
Total votes			11,036,175	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			12,985,051	84.99
Source: Nohlen et al.

By province

Province or city	Park Chung Hee		Yun Po-sun		Oh Jae-young		Byun Young-tae		Jang I-seok		Total
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
Seoul	371,627	(30.1%)	802,052	(65.1%)	20,634	(1.6%)	26,728	(2.2%)	10,537	(0.9%)	1,231,578
Gyeonggi	384,764	(33.1%)	661,984	(56.9%)	54,770	(4.7%)	34,775	(3.0%)	27,554	(2.4%)	1,163,847
Gangwon	296,711	(40.0%)	368,092	(49.1%)	35,568	(4.7%)	24,924	(3.3%)	24,528	(3.3%)	749,823
Chungnam	405,077	(40.8%)	490,663	(49.4%)	47,364	(4.8%)	26,639	(2.7%)	23,359	(2.4%)	993,102
Chungbuk	202,789	(39.8%)	249,397	(48.9%)	26,911	(5.3%)	15,699	(3.1%)	14,971	(2.9%)	509,767
Jeonnam	765,712	(57.2%)	480,800	(35.9%)	51,714	(3.9%)	17,312	(1.3%)	22,604	(1.7%)	1,338,142
Jeonbuk	408,556	(49.4%)	343,171	(41.5%)	27,906	(3.4%)	18,617	(2.3%)	18,223	(2.2%)	826,473
Busan	242,779	(48.2%)	239,038	(47.5%)	11,214	(2.2%)	7,106	(1.4%)	3,419	(0.7%)	503,601
Gyeongnam	706,079	(61.7%)	341,971	(29.9%)	60,645	(5.3%)	19,323	(1.7%)	26,014	(2.3%)	1,144,032
Gyeongbuk	837,124	(55.6%)	543,392	(36.1%)	58,079	(3.9%)	31,113	(2.1%)	34,622	(2.3%)	1,504,330
Jeju	81,422	(70.0%)	26,009	(22.3%)	3,859	(3.3%)	2,207	(1.9%)	3,006	(2.6%)	116,503

References

1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p420 ISBN   0-19-924959-8
2. Nohlen et al., p464
3. "Park Declared Winner In Korea" The Miami News, 19 October 1963, p8A
4. Kim, Byung-Kook (2011). The Park Chung Hee Era. Harvard University Press. pp. 353–354. ISBN   978-0674061064.
5. 이, 윤섭 (2012-07-31). 박정희 정권의 시작과 종말 1 (in Korean). ebookspub(이북스펍). ISBN   9788997293094.
6. "신정당(新政黨)". Encyclopedia of Korean Culture (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-21.