2012 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 11 April 2012. The election was won by the ruling Saenuri or New Frontier Party, which renewed its majority in the National Assembly,^[1] despite losing seats. The election was read as a bellwether for the presidential election to be held later in the year.^[2] The result confounded exit polls and media analysis, which had predicted a closer outcome.^[3]

2012 South Korean legislative election

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All 300 seats in the National Assembly 151 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	54.24% (8.16pp; Const. votes) 54.24% (8.16pp; PR votes)
Majority party Minority party   Leader Park Geun-hye Han Myeong-sook Party Saenuri Democratic United Last election 167 seats[a] 81 seats[b] Seats won 152 127 Seat change 15 46 Constituency vote 9,324,911 8,156,045 % and swing 43.28% (3.87pp) 37.85% (8.93pp) Regional vote 9,130,651 7,777,123 % and swing 42.80% (7.86pp) 36.46% ( 11.28pp)   Third party Fourth party   Leader Lee Jung-hee Rhyu Si-min Sim Sang-jung Lee Hoi-chang Party Unified Progressive Liberty Forward Last election 5 seats[c] 18 seats Seats won 13 5 Seat change 8 13 Constituency vote 1,291,306 474,001 % and swing 5.99% (2.60pp) 2.20% (3.52pp) Regional vote 2,198,405 690,754 % and swing 10.31% (4.63pp) 3.24% (3.61pp)
Speaker before election Chung Eui-hwa Saenuri Elected Speaker Kang Chang-hee Saenuri

Background

The South Korean National Assembly consists of 246 directly elected seats and 54 nationwide proportional representation seats chosen under an FPTP-PR parallel voting system.^[4] Proportional seats were only available to parties which one three percent of the national valid vote among seat-allocated parties and/or won five or more constituency seats. In South Korea's presidential system, the head of state controls the executive, but the loss of control in congress could have hampered President Lee's ability to govern alone.^[5]

Political parties

See also: List of political parties in South Korea

Parties		Leader	Ideology	Seats		Status
				Last election	Before election
	Saenuri Party	Park Geun-hye	Conservatism	153 / 299 [d]	163 / 299	Government
				14 / 299 [e]
	Democratic United Party	Han Myeong-sook	Liberalism	81 / 299 [b]	79 / 299	Opposition
	Liberty Forward Party	Lee Hoi-chang	Conservatism	18 / 299	13 / 299	Opposition
	Unified Progressive Party	Lee Jung-hee Rhyu Si-min Sim Sang-jung	Progressivism	5 / 299 [c]	7 / 299	Opposition
	Creative Korea Party	Han Myeon-hee	Centrist reformism	3 / 299	0 / 299	Opposition

Four parties won seats in the 2012 election:

• Saenuri Party (Korean: 새누리당, Saenuri-dang), led by Park Geun-hye.^[6]
  The largest conservative party and incumbent government. Formerly name the Grand National Party,^[7] the party was renamed in February after a period of internal crisis in which an Emergency Response Commission assumed control of the party.^[8][9]
• Democratic United Party (Korean: 민주통합당, Minju Tonghap-dang), led by Han Myeong-sook. The largest liberal party and principal opposition.^[10][11]
• Liberty Forward Party (Korean: 자유선진당, Jayu Seonjin-dang), led by Sim Dae-pyung. The second-largest conservative party with its primary support base in Chungcheong.^[12]
• Unified Progressive Party (Korean: 통합진보당, Tonghap Jinbo-dang), led jointly by Rhyu Si-min, Lee Jung-hee, and Sim Sang-jeong.^[13] The largest left-progressive party.^[14][15]

Other parties that put forward candidates included the left-wing New Progressive Party and the centre-right Korea Vision Party.

The conservative parties were fragmented, particularly between Saenuri and the new KVP over the latter recruiting high-profile defected members of the incumbent party and those who were denied tickets in the election, which was also reflective of a division grew between Park's leadership and loyalists of Lee Myung-bak.^[16] However, the DUP–UPP coalition also came under strain due to irregularities in the UPP's primaries that involved co-leader Lee Jung-hee.^[17]

Campaign

Campaigning for the election officially began on 29 March, though party leaders toured the country beforehand to rally support for their bids.^[18] The international media suggested that the main issues in the campaign were economic, including inflation, educational and housing costs, unemployment and underemployment, the income gap, and social welfare, while the North Korean issue did not play a role.^[2][7]

The opposition DUP tried to harness discontent with the incumbent Lee's administration, and called on the electorate to adjudge the election as a referendum on Lee's presidency.^[19] The opposition coalition endeavored to depict the ruling party as unsocial and favoring the rich, while promising to create jobs.^[20] The incumbent government emphasised the threat of North Korea and made the case for continuing their hard line towards the northern neighbour and maintaining a close alliance with the United States. They accused the opposition of jeopardising the free trade agreement with the U.S. The DUP had demanded renegotiation of the treaty and threatened to cancel it in case of the United States' refusal to negotiate.^[19]

The international media highlighted the candidacy of Cho Myung-chul, a professor who defected from North Korea in 1994.^[21][22] In its newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the North Korean Workers' Party called on the electorate to vote out the incumbent government: "Young voters, students and people must deliver a crushing defeat to the traitors."^[1]

Scandals

After accusations of unauthorized government surveillance surfaced, legislators called for an investigation, while the ruling party accused the previous government of doing the same.^[2] The presidential office published an analysis stating that 84% of the recorded incidents had taken place under the previous administration of Roh Moo-hyun.^[23] A post-election analysis by polling institute Realmeter showed that the ruling party's handling of scandal was effective, and that the surveillance scandal didn't affect voters' decision much.^[24] A DUP candidate, Kim Yong-min, was also accused of having made numerous offensive comments on the podcast-talk-show Naneun Ggomsuda,^[25] for which he apologized but refused to rescind his candidacy, despite the DUP leadership advising him to do so.^[26][27] Kim subsequently failed to win his seat in the election.^[28]

Opinion polling

Polls were barred in the final week of the election, just before indications suggested the two largest parties would get somewhere between 130 and 135 seats each. A high turnout, particularly with the youth, was seen as beneficial to the opposition.^[2]

Institute	Date	Saenuri (SP)	Democratic United (DUP)	Unified Progressive (UPP)	Liberty Forward (LFP)	Korea Vision (KVP)	New Progressive (NPP)
Realmeter[29]	23 December 2011	31.2%	30.9%	6.1%	2.2%	–	1.3%
Realmeter[30]	13 January 2012	29.5%	34.7%	3.2%	2.4%	–	1.8%
Realmeter[31]	Jan.25–27, 2012	30.3%	37.1%	4.0%	2.0%	–	1.0%
Realmeter[31]	Jan.30–Feb.2, 2012	32.9%	36.9%	3.9%	1.5%	–	0.9%
Realmeter[31]	Feb.6–10, 2012	33.9%	35.8%	4.2%	2.4%	–	0.8%
Hankyoreh / KSOI[32]	Feb.24–25, 2012	38.2%	32.9%	3.1%	1.7%	1.5%	1.1%
Realmeter[31]	Feb.27–Mar.2, 2012	36.3%	36.3%	6.1%	1.7%	0.4%	–
Realmeter[31]	5–9 March 2012	40.3%	32.7%	4.8%	2.3%	–	–
KBS[33][nb 2]	10–11 March 2012	34.1%	35.4%	3.6%	1.7%	–	–
Realmeter[31]	12–16 March 2012	39.4%	33.7%	5.7%	2.3%	–	–
Realmeter[31]	19–23 March 2012	37.4%	33.3%	7.5%	2.1%	–	–
Realmeter[34]	26–30 March 2012	39.8%	30.5%	8.1%	2.3%	–	–
Realmeter[35][nb 3]	28 March 2012	37.8%	30.5%	12.1%	2.3%	1.9%	1.6%
Hankyoreh / KSOI[36]	31 March 2012	38.3%	33.5%	7.2%	2.4%	0.3%	1.0%
Research View[37][unreliable source?]	1 April 2012	42.3%	29.5%	9.7%	3.9%	1.1%	2.1%

Results

Main article: List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2012–2016

The voting centres were open from 6:00−18:00. Voting occurred via electronic ballot counting and scanning that gave an instantaneous result.^[6] Cho Myung-chul's successful candidature was the first time that one of the 23 thousand North Korean refugees living in the South was elected to the National Assembly.^[21]

13 127 5 152 3
Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Saenuri Party	9,130,651	42.80	25	9,324,911	43.28	127	152	–15
	Democratic United Party	7,777,123	36.46	21	8,156,045	37.85	106	127	+46
	Unified Progressive Party	2,198,405	10.31	6	1,291,306	5.99	7	13	+8
	Liberty Forward Party	690,754	3.24	2	474,001	2.20	3	5	–13
	Christian Liberal Democratic Party [ko]	257,190	1.21	0	2,241	0.01	0	0	0
	New Progressive Party	243,065	1.14	0	101,614	0.47	0	0	0
	Hannara Party	181,822	0.85	0	454	0.00	0	0	New
	Korea Vision Party	156,241	0.73	0	44,379	0.21	0	0	New
	Pro-Park United [ko]	134,898	0.63	0	25,302	0.12	0	0	New
	Green Party Korea	103,842	0.49	0	4,843	0.02	0	0	New
	Creative Korea Party	91,935	0.43	0	3,624	0.02	0	0	–3
	Party for Youth [ko]	73,194	0.34	0	5,569	0.03	0	0	New
	Go! Party for the Grand People [ko]	60,428	0.28	0				0	New
	Korean Christian Party	54,332	0.25	0				0	New
	Authentic Democratic Party	48,648	0.23	0	71,867	0.33	0	0	New
	United Buddhist Party	36,262	0.17	0	68	0.00	0	0	New
	People's Happiness Party [ko]	35,846	0.17	0	18,028	0.08	0	0	New
	Party for Culture and Art	23,330	0.11	0				0	0
	Future Union [ko]	19,962	0.09	0	5,403	0.03	0	0	New
	Grand Korea Party [ko]	14,133	0.07	0	887	0.00	0	0	New
	Democratic Unification Party				524	0.00	0	0	New
	People's Power				153	0.00	0	0	New
	Independents				2,014,777	9.35	3	3	–22
Total		21,332,061	100.00	54	21,545,996	100.00	246	300	+1
Valid votes		21,332,061	97.82		21,545,996	98.87
Invalid/blank votes		474,737	2.18		246,855	1.13
Total votes		21,806,798	100.00		21,792,851	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		40,205,055	54.24		40,181,623	54.24
Source: NEC, CLEA, IPU

By city/province

Graph of constituencies won

Constituency results by city/provinces

Region	Saenuri	DUP	UPP	LFP	Ind.	Total seats
Seoul	16	30	2	0	0	48
Busan	16	2	0	0	0	18
Daegu	12	0	0	0	0	12
Incheon	6	6	0	0	0	12
Gwangju	0	6	1	0	1	8
Daejeon	3	3	0	0	0	6
Ulsan	6	0	0	0	0	6
Sejong	0	1	0	0	0	1
Gyeonggi	21	29	2	0	0	52
Gangwon	9	0	0	0	0	9
North Chungcheong	5	3	0	0	0	8
South Chungcheong	4	3	0	3	0	10
North Jeolla	0	9	1	0	1	11
South Jeolla	0	10	1	0	0	11
North Gyeongsang	15	0	0	0	0	15
South Gyeongsang	14	1	0	0	1	16
Jeju	0	3	0	0	0	3
Total	127	106	7	3	3	246

Party list vote results by city/provinces

Region	Saenuri	DUP	UPP	LFP	Other
Seoul	42.3	38.2	10.6	2.1	6.9
Busan	51.3	31.8	8.4	1.9	6.6
Daegu	66.5	16.4	7.0	2.0	8.1
Incheon	42.9	37.7	9.7	2.6	7.1
Gwangju	5.5	68.9	18.6	1.0	5.9
Daejeon	34.3	33.7	9.0	17.9	5.1
Ulsan	49.5	25.2	16.3	1.6	7.4
Sejong	27.8	38.7	5.4	22.6	5.5
Gyeonggi	42.4	27.7	11.0	2.2	6.7
Gangwon	51.3	33.5	6.6	1.8	6.8
North Chungcheong	43.8	36.0	7.7	5.3	7.1
South Chungcheong	36.6	30.4	6.8	20.4	5.8
North Jeolla	9.6	65.6	14.2	1.4	9.2
South Jeolla	6.3	69.6	14.8	1.2	8.2
North Gyeongsang	69.0	13.4	6.2	1.4	9.9
South Gyeongsang	53.8	25.6	10.5	1.6	8.5
Jeju	38.5	39.5	12.4	2.0	7.6
Overall total	42.8	36.5	10.3	3.2	7.2
Seat allocation	25	21	6	2	0

Reactions and aftermath

President Lee said that the "people made wise choices. The government will do its best to manage state affairs in a stable manner and take care of the people's livelihood". The DUP's secretary-general Park Sun-sook conceded the election and added: "The DUP failed to turn public calls for punishing the ... ruling party into reality. We apologise for disappointing supporters. We will sincerely think over what today's election means and try ceaselessly to be reborn as a party the people can lean and rely on."^[1] Sim Dae-pyung, leader of the Liberty Forward Party, announced his resignation after the party's poor performance.^[38]

On 13 April, the DUP leader Han Myeong-sook announced her resignation on account of her party's defeat.^[39]

See also

• List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2012–2016

Notes

1. Grand National Party and Future Hope Alliance
2. as Democratic Party
3. as Democratic Labor Party
4. as Grand National Party
5. Future Hope Alliance

1.^ Comparison includes the Pro-Park Coalition, which split from and subsequently reintegrated with the Grand National Party.

2.^ This survey asked separate questions on party support and voting intention. The latter result is reported here.

3.^ This survey dealt specifically with seats allocated by proportional representation.