October 15, 1963 (Tue.) The 5th Presidential Election

The 5th presidential election was the first election since the Constitution of the third ROK was established. It was also the first election managed by the National Election Commission (NEC) since the NEC was launched.
This election adopted the “On-demand Registration System,” in which the voters list was registered for each different election, and mandated the party nomination for the candidate registration. The Election Canvasser System was abolished and campaigning was limited to only allow registered party members to campaign, which ultimately regulated the freedom to campaign. Regulations were also made to limit the cost of election campaign and the items of campaign expenditure. In the 5th presidential election, Park, Chung-hee from the Democratic Republican Party, Yoon, Bo-sun from the Democratic Justice Party, Huh, Jung from the People’s Party, Song, Yo-chan from the Free Democratic Party, Oh, Jae-young from the Autumn Wind Club, Byun, Young-tae from the Jungmin Party, and Jang, Yi-seok from the New Party ran for presidency. However, in the middle of the election, Song, Yo-chan from the Free Democratic Party and Huh, Jung from the People’s Party resigned from the race. Despite the apparent competition between the five candidates, in actuality it was mainly a competition between Park, Chung-hee (Democratic Republican Party) and Yoon, Bo-sun (Democratic Justice Party). As a result, Park, Chung-hee became the president by winning 46.6% of valid votes while Mr. Yoon, Bo-sun received 45.1% of the votes.