1996 South Korean legislative election

1996 South Korean legislative election

11 April 1996
All 299 seats in the National Assembly 150 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	63.91% ( 7.95pp)
Majority party Minority party   Leader Kim Young-sam Kim Dae-jung Party New Korea National Congress Last election 149 seats Did not exist Seats won 139 79 Seat change 10 New Popular vote 6,783,730 4,971,961 Percentage 34.52% 25.30% Swing 3.97pp New   Third party Fourth party   Leader Kim Jong-pil Park Il Chang Eul-byung Party United Liberal Democrats United Democratic Last election 32 seats 97 seats Seats won 50 15 Seat change 18 82 Popular vote 3,178,474 2,207,695 Percentage 16.17% 11.23% Swing 2.99pp 17.94pp
Speaker before election Hwang Nak-joo New Korea Elected Speaker Kim Soo-han New Korea

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 12 April 1996. The result was a victory for the New Korea Party, which won 139 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 63.9%. Although the New Korea Party remained the largest party in the National Assembly, it failed to win the majority.

Electoral system

Of the 299 seats, 253 were elected in single-member districts via first-past-the-post voting, while the remainder were allocated via proportional representation at the national level. Proportional seats were only available to parties which won three percent of the national valid vote among seat-allocated parties and/or won five or more constituency seats.

Political parties

See also: List of political parties in South Korea

Parties		Leader	Ideology	Seats		Status
				Last election	Before election
	New Korea Party	Kim Young-sam	Conservatism	149 / 299	146 / 299	Government
	National Congress for New Politics	Cho Soon-hyung	Liberalism	Did not exist	52 / 299	Opposition
	United Democratic Party	Park Il Chang Eul-byung		97 / 299	36 / 299	Opposition
	United Liberal Democrats	Kim Jong-pil	Conservatism	31 / 299	29 / 299	Opposition
				1 / 299

The governing New Korea Party (formerly the Democratic Liberal Party) of President Kim Young-sam, lost its absolute parliamentary majority. The election was held three years into President Kim's five year mandate.

The opposition National Congress for New Politics was formed by veteran opposition leader Kim Dae-jung and his supporters in the Democratic Party. Kim had retired from politics following his loss in the 1992 Presidential election but formed the new party after his return in 1995.

The right-wing United Liberal Democrats was led by former Prime Minister of South Korea Kim Jong-pil, a former ally of President Kim. He had been a member of the former ruling Democratic Liberal Party but broke with it after Kim's victory in 1992. It joined with Kim Dae Jung's opposition and formed coalition.

The United Democratic Party had once been the premier opposition party. It supported Kim Dae-jung's unsuccessful Presidential campaign in 1992 and was the largest opposition party in the outgoing National Assembly. However, following the defection of Kim and his supporters, the party was reduced to a minor force. It later merged to Kim Young-sam's party.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats
				FPTP	PR	Total	+/–
	New Korea Party	6,783,730	34.52	121	18	139	–10
	National Congress for New Politics	4,971,961	25.30	66	13	79	New
	United Liberal Democrats	3,178,474	16.17	41	9	50	+18
	United Democratic Party	2,207,695	11.23	9	6	15	–82
	Unified People of Non-faction Party	177,050	0.90	0	0	0	New
	Great Korean Democratic Party	3,114	0.02	0	0	0	New
	21st Century Korean Independence Party	1,693	0.01	0	0	0	New
	Chinmin Party	571	0.00	0	0	0	New
	Independents	2,328,785	11.85	16	0	16	–5
Total		19,653,073	100.00	253	46	299	0
Valid votes		19,653,073	97.67
Invalid/blank votes		469,726	2.33
Total votes		20,122,799	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		31,488,294	63.91
Source: Nohlen et al.

By city or province

Region	Total seats	Seats won
		NKP	NCNP	ULD	UDP	Ind.
Seoul	47	27	18	0	1	1
Busan	21	21	0	0	0	0
Daegu	13	2	0	8	0	3
Incheon	11	9	2	0	0	0
Gwangju	6	0	6	0	0	0
Daejeon	7	0	0	7	0	0
Gyeonggi	38	18	10	5	3	2
Gangwon	13	9	0	2	2	0
North Chungcheong	8	2	0	5	0	1
South Chungcheong	13	1	0	12	0	0
North Jeolla	14	1	13	0	0	0
South Jeolla	17	0	17	0	0	0
North Gyeongsang	19	11	0	2	1	5
South Gyeongsang	23	17	0	0	2	4
Jeju	3	3	0	0	0	0
Constituency total	253	121	66	41	9	16
PR list	46	18	13	9	6	0
Total	299	139	79	50	15	16

External links

• 1996 elections in South Korea Inter-Parliamentary Union