General election in South Korea 2016

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(Party votes)

 %

40

30th

20th

10

0

33.5

26.7

25.5

7.2

7.1

SP ^a

GP ^b

DMP ^c

JP ^d

Otherwise.

Gains and losses

compared to 2012

 % p

 30th

 25th

 20th

 15th

 10

   5

   0

  -5

-10

-15

-13.2

+26.7

-11.0

-2.8

+0.3

SP ^a

GP ^b

DMP ^c

JP ^d

Otherwise.

Remarks:

^a The results are compared with the cumulative results of the Saenuri Party (42.8%), the Freedom and Progress Party (3.2%) and the Gungmin-saenggak Party (0.7%).

^b The Gungminui Party (Citizens' Party) was founded on February 2, 2016.

^c The Deobureo Minju Party was formed on March 6, 2014 through the merger of the Minju Party ( 민주당 , Minju-dang, Democratic Party), which wasrenamed in 2013, with the Preparatory Committee for the Party of New Political Vision . The results are compared with those of the Minju-tonghap party ( 민주 통합 당 , Minju-tonghap-dang, Democratic United Party).

^d The Jeongui Party (Justice Party) emerged on February 2, 2016 as a split from the Tonghap-jinbo Party ( 통합 진보당 , Tonghap-jinbo-dang, United Progressive Party). The current results are compared with those of the 2012 Tonghap jinbo party.

The parliamentary election in South Korea took place on April 13, 2016. The South Korean people voted on the composition of the South Korean National Assembly (Gukhoe) with 300 seats. 253 members of parliament were directly elected in a simple majority vote in the constituencies, 47 in proportional representation via party lists . The liberal Deobureo-minju party ( 더불어 민주당 , Deobureo-minju-dang, Common Democratic Party), founded in 2014 as a merger of the Minju Party ( 민주당 , Minju-dang, Democratic Party) and the NPVP, which was renamed in 2013 came in only third place in terms of votes, but was able - benefited by the current electoral system - to win more constituencies than the previously ruling conservative Saenuri Party ( 새누리 당 , Saenuri-dang, New World Party). The also newly founded Gungminui party ( 국민 의 당 , Gungminui-dang, party of the citizens) came in second place in terms of votes, but only in third place in terms of parliamentary mandates .

In the last election in 2012 , the conservative Saenuri party won a narrow majority of 152 out of 300 seats in parliament. However, this majority was lost shortly after the election due to party withdrawals. Shortly before the current election, the Saenuri party still held 146 of the 292 seats in parliament, exactly half.

Electoral system

The electoral system is a mixture of majority and proportional representation . In the last election, 246 of the 300 MPs were elected in single constituencies using simple majority voting (“ first past the post ”). The remaining 54 seats were filled according to the votes cast by the parties in the national election. With regard to proportional representation via the state list, a 3 percent threshold applies . However, if a party wins at least five constituencies, it is exempt from the threshold clause and can also send representatives to the National Assembly via the state list if it has achieved less than 3% of the vote nationwide.

Reallocation of constituencies

In 2014, the South Korean Supreme Court ruled that the borders of the 246 constituencies should be redrawn before the election. The court ruled that the most populous constituency could not have more than twice the population of the least populous constituency. The previous regulation had allowed between 100,000 and 300,000 voters per constituency, ie a maximum ratio of 1: 3. The court asked the National Assembly to translate these provisions into law by the end of 2015. By the end of 2015, however, this had still not happened, so that the Central Electoral Commission of South Korea was forced to allow candidates to vote without clearly specifying the limits of their constituency. In mid-February, the parties represented in the National Assembly agreed on the boundaries of the new constituencies. Instead of the previous 246, there should be 253 constituencies in the future. The number of voters in the new constituencies was between 140,000 and 280,000 per constituency. In order not to change the number of 300 members in the National Assembly, the number of representatives determined by proportional representation was reduced from 54 to 47.

Results

2016 elected parliament of South Korea:

Deobureo minju party (123)

Saenuri Party (122)

Gungminui Party (38)

Jeongui Party (6)

Independent (11)

Overall result

The turnout was 58.0%. A total of 11 independent candidates were elected in the constituencies, seven of which were former Saenuri members who were not nominated for their party's candidate selection and therefore ran as independents. In addition to the independent candidates, four parties (Saenuri, Minju, Justice Party and Gungminui Party (People's Party)) won constituencies. These four parties were also the only ones able to win seats on the state list. The Christian Liberal Party failed with 2.6% of the vote against the 3% hurdle.

Results of the 2016 National Assembly election

Parties		Abbreviation	Parliament seats				Votes				Total seats	±
			electoral circles	±	Party lists	±	electoral circles	%	Party lists	%
	Deobureo Minju Party (더불어 민주당) Joint Democratic Party	DMP	110	+4	13	−8	8,881,369	37.0%	6,069,744	25.5%	123	−4
	Saenuri Party (새누리 당) New World Party	SP	105	−25	17th	−10	9,200,690	38.3%	7.960.272	33.5%	122	−35
	Gungminui Party (국민 의 당) Citizens' Party	GP	25th	(New)	13	(New)	3,565,451	14.9%	6,355,572	26.7%	38	(New)
	Jeongui Party (정의당) Justice Party	JP	2	−5	4th	−2	395.357	1.6%	1,719,891	7.2%	6th	−7
	Gidok-jayu-Party (기독 자유당) Christian Liberal Party	GJP	0	(New)	0	(New)	1376	0.0%	626.853	2.6%	0	(New)
	Minju Party (민주당)	MP	0	(New)	0	(New)	17,034	0.1%	209.872	0.9%	0	(New)
	Other parties		0	± 0	0	± 0	257.879	1.1%	818.773	3.4%	0	± 0
	Independent		11	+8	-no-		1,683,264	7.0%	-no-		11	+8
total			253	+7	47	−7	24.002.420	100.0%	23,760,977	100.0%	300	-

1. ↑ compared to the results of the Minju Party ( 민주당 , Minju-dang, Democratic Party), which was renamed in 2013 , in the 2012 election.
2. ↑ The comparison with 2012 includes the voters of the Party for Freedom and Progress .
3. ↑ Compared to the Tonghap-jinbo party 2012.
4. ↑ Often referred to as the Minjoo Party in English literature , but not identical to the Deobureo-minju party

Constituency map

Schematic representation of the constituency results

Result by municipalities

Results by provinces

The table below shows the results by province. The party with the highest number of votes and most of the electoral districts won per province are marked in color.

Constituency and party list results by provinces and cities

region	Saenuri		Deobureo-minju		Gungminui		Jeongui		Other		Independent	Total seats
	Seats	Votes (%)	Seats	Votes (%)	Seats	Votes (%)	Seats	Votes (%)	Seats	Votes (%)	Seats
Seoul	12	33.5%	35	25.5%	2	26.7%	0	7.2%	0	7.1%	0	49
Busan	12	41.2%	5	26.6%	0	20.3%	0	6.0%	0	5.9%	1	18th
Incheon	4th	33.4%	7th	25.4%	0	26.9%	0	7.5%	0	6.8%	2	13
Daegu	8th	53.6%	1	16.3%	0	17.4%	0	6.1%	0	6.6%	3	12
Gwangju	0	2.9%	0	28.6%	8th	53.3%	0	7.3%	0	7.9%	0	8th
Daejeon	3	31.0%	4th	28.2%	0	27.1%	0	7.6%	0	6.1%	0	7th
Ulsan	3	36.7%	0	22.8%	0	21.1%	0	8.7%	0	10.7%	3	6th
Sejong	0	28.6%	0	28.5%	0	26.6%	0	8.9%	0	7.4%	1	1
Gyeonggi	19th	32.3%	40	26.8%	0	27.0%	1	7.8%	0	6.1%	0	60
Gangwon-do	6th	43.4%	1	23.9%	0	19.3%	0	5.7%	0	7.7%	1	8th
Chungcheongbuk-do	5	38.6%	3	27.6%	0	21.4%	0	5.6%	0	6.8%	0	8th
Chungcheongnam-do	6th	37.0%	5	27.1%	0	22.5%	0	5.6%	0	7.8%	0	11
Jeollabuk-do	1	7.6%	2	32.3%	7th	42.8%	0	8.1%	0	9.2%	0	10
Jeollanam-do	1	5.7%	1	30.0%	8th	47.8%	0	5.8%	0	10.7%	0	10
Gyeongsangbuk-do	13	58.1%	0	12.9%	0	14.8%	0	5.2%	0	9.0%	0	13
Gyeongsangnam-do	12	44.0%	3	24.4%	0	17.4%	1	6.5%	0	7.7%	0	16
Jeju-do	0	35.0%	3	29.6%	0	22.4%	0	7.0%	0	6.0%	0	3
Total constituencies	105		110		25th		2		0		11	253
Party lists	17th	33.5%	13	25.5%	13	26.7%	4th	7.2%	0	7.0%	-	47
total	122		123		38		6th		0		11	300

The Deobureo-minju and Gungminui parties achieved their highest share of the vote in the south-west of the country in Jeollanam-do province and in the city of Gwangju . The Justice Party did best in Seoul and Ulsan , while the Saenuri Party in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province won over 50% of the vote.

• Share of votes of the parties
• 

  Saenuri party
• 

  Gungminui party
• 

  Deobureo minju party
• 

  Jeongui party

After the election

After the election, the leader of the Saenuri party, Kim Moo-sung and other high SP officials announced their resignation. A spokesman for the SP said that the party would like to accept MPs who were not nominated as Saenuri candidates but who then succeeded as independent candidates. The independent delegate Ahn Sang-soo then announced that he wanted to rejoin the Saenuri party. Yoo Seong-min, another independent, said he would do so at a later date. With this invitation to the former members, the SP party leadership hoped to again become the strongest party in the National Assembly by mandate and thus to be able to provide the parliamentary speaker and the chairman of the important parliamentary committees. If these posts were to go to the currently stronger parliamentary faction of the Deobureo-minju party, important legislative processes in the final months of President Park Geun-hye's term in office might be hampered.

Web links

• Surprise in South Korean elections. In: Deutsche Welle. April 13, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Minority People's Party steals show: Ahn's Party holds balance of power as three party system dawns . In: The Korea Herald . April 13, 2016, accessed April 13, 2016 .  
2. ↑ Parliamentary candidates launch official campaigning . In: Yonhap News . March 31, 2014, accessed April 14, 2016 .  
3. ^ Election Districts and Representation System . National Election Commission , archived from the original on April 21, 2016 ; accessed on January 17, 2018 (English, original website no longer available).  
4. ^ Constitutional Court ruling to change voting districts . In: The Korea Herald . October 30, 2014, accessed April 14, 2016 .  
5. ↑ NEC allows campaigning without new electoral map . In: Korea Joongang Daily . December 31, 2015, accessed April 14, 2016 .  
6. ↑ Kim Hyo-jin: Parties agree on electoral map . In: The Korea Times . February 23, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 .  
7. ↑ 20 대 총선 잠정 투표율 58.0%… 19 대보다 3.8% p. In: Yonhap News . April 13, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2016 (Korean).  
8. ↑ ^{a b} Saenuri begs victorious independents to return . Korea Joongang Daily , April 16, 2016, accessed April 16, 2016 .  
9. ↑ 4.13 총선 . (No longer available online.) Naver News , April 13, 2016, formerly original ; Retrieved April 13, 2016 (Korean).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
10. ↑ ^{a b} 개표 진행 상황 . (No longer available online.) National Election Commission , April 14, 2016, archived from the original April 14, 2016 ; Retrieved April 14, 2016 (Korean). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   
11. ↑ Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung offers to step down over election debacle . In: The Korea Herald . April 14, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 .