December 17, 1962 (Mon.) The 1st National Referendum

The 1st national referendum held on December 17, 1962 when the National Election Commission had yet existed was managed by the temporarily established National Referendum Commission under the ‘National Referendum Act.’ The then ‘National Referendum Act’ was passed by the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction on October 10, 1962 after ‘May 16 Military Coup.’ before being established on October 12. The referendum held in 1962 was a yes-or-no vote for the constitutional amendment proposed by the Supreme Council for National Reconstruction. The core of the constitutional amendment was about changing the parliamentary cabinet system to the presidential system, and introducing proportional representation. In addition, the voting this time featured not only passing the constitutional amendment but also a vote of confidence over the past 18 months since ‘May 16 Military Coup.’ paying attention to the voter turnout and approval rating.
The voter’s list for the national referendum was prepared by heads of district, city, town and village. The National Referendum Commission had no supervisor rights to making the list. Meanwhile, as there was no regulation on activities for guidance in the National Referendum Act, the National Referendum Commission was not able to do such activities.
No polling station was allowed in the barracks and all the ballot papers were mixed together while counting ballots. If part of ballot boxes were late in arriving due to unavoidable incidents such as a traffic condition, the votes started to be counted when two thirds of ballot boxes had arrived. For the other boxes which arrived later, more than five boxes as a unit were mixed together and counted.
As a result, 10,585,998 out of 12,412,798 voters or 85.3% participated in the referendum and 8,339,333 or 78.8% voted yes approving the constitutional amendment