October 22, 1980 (Wed.) The 5th National Referendum

The 5th National Referendum for the Constitutional Amendment was held on October 22, 1980 immediately after the Chun Doo-hwan government was launched. The vote this time was made when all the political activities were suspended under the martial law declared on May 17, 1980. The key agenda was revising the previous constitution to allow the presidential election electoral college to elect the president in an indirect way and changing the presidential system to a seven-year single-term presidency.
Prior to the national referendum, the National Election Commission delivered instructions for fair management after a group education to all the employees and executives across the country. Due to various restrictive regulations in the National Referendum Act, however, a national campaign for voting was not possible and, therefore, the Commission’s effort was not able to go beyond an administrative electoral procedure management and general guidance. What is distinct is that tobacco was used during the guidance activities for the first time.
As a result, 95.5% or 19,453,926 out of 20,373,869 people cast a vote and, among them, 91.6% or 17,829,354 agreed, approving the constitutional amendment.