1981 South Korean legislative election

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1981 South Korean legislative election
Flag of South Korea (1949-1984).svg
  1978 25 March 1981 1985  

All 276 seats in the National Assembly
139 seats needed for a majority
Turnout77.74% (Increase2.svg 0.66pp)
 Majority partyMinority party
  Chun Doo-hwan.png 3x4.svg
Leader Chun Doo-hwan Yu Chi-song
Party Democratic Justice Democratic Korea
Seats won15181
Popular vote5,776,6243,495,829
Percentage35.64%21.57%

 Third partyFourth party
 
Leader Kim Jong-cheol
Party National Civil Rights
Seats won252
Popular vote2,147,2931,088,847
Percentage13.25%6.72%

Speaker before election

Dissolution of parliament

Elected Speaker

Chung Rae-hyuk
Democratic Justice

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 25 March 1981. [1]

Contents

The result was a victory for the Democratic Justice Party, which won 151 of the 276 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 77.7%.

The election was held under the influence of Coup d'état of 1979 and 1980. Major opposition political figures like Kim Young-sam were barred from running. Kim Dae-jung was arrested on May 17, 1980, and was sentenced to death on a of "inciting rebellion". Even the Democratic Republican Party of the late president Park Chung-hee was forcibly dissolved, and major figures like Kim Jong-pil were barred from running.

The election, while ostensibly a multi-party election, is widely considered to have been a fraudulent one, with supposed "opposition" politicians being heavily vetted by the Agency for National Security Planning and the South Korean Army Security Command.

Electoral system

The new electoral system for the National Assembly abolished the president's power to appoint one-third of the chamber's members. Of the 276 seats, 184 were elected in two-member constituencies via single non-transferable vote, while the remainder were allocated via proportional representation at the national level among parties that won five or more seats in constituencies. Two-thirds of those seats would be awarded to the top party (which was then eliminated from further consideration for national seats), with the remainder allocated based on vote share.

Results

2
2
81
1
1
25
151
2
11
PartyVotes%Seats
FPTPPRTotal+/–
Democratic Justice Party 5,776,62435.649061151New
Democratic Korea Party 3,495,82921.57572481New
Korean National Party 2,147,29313.2518725New
Civil Rights Party  [ ko ]1,088,8476.72202New
New Politics Party  [ ko ]676,9214.18202New
Democratic Socialist Party  [ ko ]524,3613.24202New
Democratic Farmer's Party  [ ko ]227,7151.41101New
Peaceful People Party  [ ko ]144,0000.89101New
Socialist Party122,7780.76000New
Korea Christian Democratic Party103,8930.64000New
Unification National Group Party87,9770.54000New
Won-il Democratic Founding Party76,8630.47000New
Independents1,734,22410.7011011–11
Total16,207,325100.0018492276+45
Valid votes16,207,32598.84
Invalid/blank votes190,5201.16
Total votes16,397,845100.00
Registered voters/turnout21,094,46877.74
Source: Nohlen et al.

By city/province

RegionTotal
seats
Seats won
DJP DKP KNP CRP NPPDSPDFPPPPInd.
Seoul 2814111001001
Busan 12650100000
Gyeonggi 2412101010000
Gangwon 12642000000
North Chungcheong 8413000001
South Chungcheong 16852000001
North Jeolla 14760000000
South Jeolla 221091010010
North Gyeongsang 261315000003
South Gyeongsang 201053101103
Jeju 2000000002
Constituency total1849057182221111
PR list9261247000000
Total27615181252221111

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References

  1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p420 ISBN   0-19-924959-8