December 23, 1972 (Sat.) The 8th Presidential Election

On October 17, 1972, President Park, Chung-hee dissolved the National Assembly and suspended the political parties and their activities by declaring a state of emergency through a special statement. He also suspended some provisions of the Constitution and led the Emergency Cabinet Council to handle the work of the National Assembly by proxy. Since then, martial law was declared. Under such circumstances, the Emergency Cabinet Council proclaimed a constitutional amendment on October 26, 1972. And the so-called “Reform Constitution,” called “Yushin Constitution” in Korean, was confirmed on November 21 by referendum with 91.5% of yes votes.
Under the Reform Constitution, the direct presidential election system changed to an indirect one conducted by the National Council for Unification. In addition, the presidential term was extended to 6 years and the prohibition on serving consecutive or overlapping terms of office was removed, virtually allowing limitless terms of service to the incumbent president.
, In order to elect the representatives of the National Congress for Unification, administrative sections across the country such as district, city and towns were divided into 1,630 constituencies. Rural areas adopted the single member constituency electoral system, whereas urban areas took the medium constituency system under which a representative of the National Congress for Unification was elected for every 20,000 citizens. Therefore, the number of the representatives of the National Congress for Unification for a constituency varied from one to five with the total number of 2,359 across the country. The Elections of Representatives of the National Council for Unification were held on December 15, 1972.
The 8th presidential election on December 23, 1972, the first election held since the foundation of the National Council for Unification, had a single candidate: Park, Chung-hee. All the members of the National Council for Unification gathered at Jangchung Stadium to vote. Park was elected with 2,357 votes (2 Invalid) and took office.