Wednesday, April 13, 2016 The 20th National Assembly Elections

The 20th National Assembly Elections that was held on April 13, 2016 followed the newly demarcated voting districts, created on March 3rd, that allowed for 253 seats for constituencies and 47 seats for proportional representation due to a ruling by the Constitutional Court, which stated that the previous deviation of the population was unconstitutional. This was also the first time in a National Assembly Election that early voting was introduced and recorded a 12.2% voter turnout rate. There also were changes made to the ballot papers, polling booth, and other electoral equipment.
For the first time in 16 years, the opposition party gained the majority in the National Assembly with the voting results reflecting a 58% voter turnout rate and the seat distribution is as follows: Minjoo Party of Korea 123 seats, Saenuri Party 122 seats, People’s Party 38 seats, Justice Party 6 seats, and Independent Candidates 11 seats. It was the first time that the ruling and majority party was reduced to being the second largest party from being the first largest party in the general elections. While the Minjoo Party did well in the areas where the ruling party was once prominent, such as Seoul and the Gyeong-gi Province, the People’s Party dominated the Honam region which is the power base of the Minjoo Party. The People’s Party achieved 2nd place in proportional representation votes, which was the first time in 20 years since the 1996 15th National Assembly Elections when the third largest party won more than 20 seats which is the number of seats required to form a parliamentary negotiation body. In addition, 9 seats were won by the opposing party in the Youngnam region, and 2 seats were won by the ruling party in the Honam region which showed that there was a change in the structure of political parties’ prominence in specific regions. In the Kyeongnam Province, candidate Gun-Hyeon Lee of the Saenuri Party ran unopposed and for the first time in 28 years since the 1988 13th National Assembly Elections, a candidate was elected without any votes.