Tuesday, February 27, 1973 The 9th National Assembly Elections

The 9th Election of the National Assembly members, the first of its kind in the 4th Republic of Korea, was held through the medium constituency system, in which 2 persons were elected per constituency in accordance with the National Assembly Election Act, enacted on December 30, 1972. There were a total of 219 seats and among them, 146 were elected for the local constituency. A third of the members or 73, were elected by the National Council for Unification through an election that was held on December 23, 1972 under the Reform Constitution. Accordingly, the national constituency system was abolished and non-partisan candidates became eligible to run for election. The term in office was 6 years but 3 years for those elected by the National Council for Unification.
Only campaign posters, bulletin and joint speech were allowed for the election campaign. In an environment where political freedom was restricted under the Reform Constitution , 339 candidates ran for election for the local constituency with a relatively low competition rate of 2.3 to 1.
The Democratic Republican Party secured 73 seats, or 50%, as a result of one candidate winning from every local constituency with the help of its influence as the ruling party and the medium constituency system. The New People’s Party followed winning 52 seats, or 35.6%, while the Democratic Unionist Party won 2 or 1.4% and non-partisan candidates 19 or 13.0%. The Democratic Republican Party including members of the Yoo-jung Association, who were elected by presidential appointment, accounted for 66.7% of the seats.