General election in South Korea 2016
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
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.
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 | - |
- ↑ compared to the results of the Minju Party ( 민주당 , Minju-dang, Democratic Party), which was renamed in 2013 , in the 2012 election.
- ↑ The comparison with 2012 includes the voters of the Party for Freedom and Progress .
- ↑ Compared to the Tonghap-jinbo party 2012.
- ↑ Often referred to as the Minjoo Party in English literature , but not identical to the Deobureo-minju party
Constituency map
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.
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.
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
- ↑ 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 .
- ↑ Parliamentary candidates launch official campaigning . In: Yonhap News . March 31, 2014, accessed April 14, 2016 .
- ^ 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).
- ^ Constitutional Court ruling to change voting districts . In: The Korea Herald . October 30, 2014, accessed April 14, 2016 .
- ↑ NEC allows campaigning without new electoral map . In: Korea Joongang Daily . December 31, 2015, accessed April 14, 2016 .
- ↑ Kim Hyo-jin: Parties agree on electoral map . In: The Korea Times . February 23, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 .
- ↑ 20 대 총선 잠정 투표율 58.0%… 19 대보다 3.8% p. In: Yonhap News . April 13, 2016. Retrieved April 14, 2016 (Korean).
- ↑ a b Saenuri begs victorious independents to return . Korea Joongang Daily , April 16, 2016, accessed April 16, 2016 .
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Saenuri Party leader Kim Moo-sung offers to step down over election debacle . In: The Korea Herald . April 14, 2016, accessed April 14, 2016 .