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2012 South Korean legislative election

none

Field	Value
country	South Korea
type	legislative
previous_election	2008 South Korean legislative election	previous_year = 2008	election_date = 11 April 2012	next_election = 2016 South Korean legislative election	next_year = 2016
outgoing_members	List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2008–2012	elected_mps = List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2012–2016
seats_for_election	All 300 seats in the National Assembly
majority_seats	151
turnout	54.24% (8.16pp; Const. votes)
54.24% (8.16pp; PR votes)
1blank	Constituency vote	2blank = % and swing
3blank	Regional vote	4blank = % and swing
image1	Park Geun-hye, 2009.jpg
leader1	Park Geun-hye
party1	Saenuri Party
last_election1	167 seats
seats1	152
seat_change1	15
1data1	9,324,911	2data1 = 43.28% (3.87pp)
3data1	9,130,651	4data1 = 42.80% (7.86pp)
image2	Prime Minister Han Myeong-sook taking a commemorative photo with the Speaker of the National Assembly.jpg
leader2	Han Myeong-sook
party2	Democratic United Party
last_election2	81 seats
seats2	127
seat_change2	46
1data2	8,156,045	2data2 = 37.85% (8.93pp)
3data2	7,777,123	4data2 = 36.46% ( 11.28pp)
image4	Lee junghee 20120915.jpg
leader4	Lee Jung-hee
Rhyu Si-min
Sim Sang-jung
party4	Unified Progressive Party
last_election4	5 seats
seats4	13
seat_change4	8
1data4	1,291,306	2data4 = 5.99% (2.60pp)
3data4	2,198,405	4data4 = 10.31% (4.63pp)
image5	Lee Hoi-chang (2010).jpg
leader5	Lee Hoi-chang
party5	Liberty Forward
last_election5	18 seats
seats5	5
seat_change5	13
1data5	474,001	2data5 = 2.20% (3.52pp)
3data5	690,754	4data5 = 3.24% (3.61pp)
map_image	South Korean Legislative Election 2012 districts no llang.svg
title	Speaker
before_election	Chung Eui-hwa	before_party = Saenuri Party
after_election	Kang Chang-hee	after_party = Saenuri Party

54.24% (8.16pp; PR votes)

Rhyu Si-min Sim Sang-jung

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, despite losing seats. The election was read as a bellwether for the presidential election to be held later in the year. The result confounded exit polls and media analysis, which had predicted a closer outcome.

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. 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.

Political parties

Parties	Leader	Ideology	Seats	Status
Saenuri Party}}"		Saenuri Party	Park Geun-hye	Conservatism	Government}}
Democratic United Party}}"		Democratic United Party	Han Myeong-sook	Liberalism
Liberty Forward Party}}"		Liberty Forward Party	Lee Hoi-chang	Conservatism
Unified Progressive Party}}"		Unified Progressive Party	Lee Jung-hee
Rhyu Si-min
Sim Sang-jung	Progressivism
Creative Korea Party}}"		Creative Korea Party	Han Myeon-hee	Centrist reformism

Four parties won seats in the 2012 election:

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

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. However, the DUP–UPP coalition also came under strain due to irregularities in the UPP's primaries that involved co-leader Lee Jung-hee.

Campaign

Campaigning for the election officially began on 29 March, though party leaders toured the country beforehand to rally support for their bids. 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.

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. The opposition coalition endeavored to depict the ruling party as unsocial and favoring the rich, while promising to create jobs. 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.

The international media highlighted the candidacy of Cho Myung-chul, a professor who defected from North Korea in 1994. 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."

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. The presidential office published an analysis stating that 84% of the recorded incidents had taken place under the previous administration of Roh Moo-hyun. 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. A DUP candidate, , was also accused of having made numerous offensive comments on the podcast-talk-show Naneun Ggomsuda, for which he apologized but refused to rescind his candidacy, despite the DUP leadership advising him to do so. Kim subsequently failed to win his seat in the election.

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.

Institute	Date	Saenuri
(SP)	Democratic United
(DUP)	Unified Progressive
(UPP)	Liberty Forward
(LFP)	Korea Vision
(KVP)	New Progressive
(NPP)	Realmeter	Realmeter	Realmeter	Realmeter	Realmeter	Hankyoreh / KSOI	Realmeter	Realmeter	KBS	Realmeter	Realmeter	Realmeter{{cite news	url=http://www.realmeter.net/issue/view.asp?Table_Name=s_news1&N_Num=391&file_name=20120402120317.htm&Cpage=1	script-title=ko:핵안보 정상회담으로 당청 지지율 반등	Realmeter	Hankyoreh / KSOI	Research View
23 December 2011	Saenuri Party}}"	31.2%	30.9%	6.1%	2.2%	–	1.3%
13 January 2012	29.5%	Democratic United Party}}"	34.7%	3.2%	2.4%	–	1.8%
Jan.25–27, 2012	30.3%	Democratic United Party}}"	37.1%	4.0%	2.0%	–	1.0%
Jan.30–Feb.2, 2012	32.9%	Democratic United Party}}"	36.9%	3.9%	1.5%	–	0.9%
Feb.6–10, 2012	33.9%	Democratic United Party}}"	35.8%	4.2%	2.4%	–	0.8%
Feb.24–25, 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	38.2%	32.9%	3.1%	1.7%	1.5%	1.1%
Feb.27–Mar.2, 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	36.3%	Democratic United Party}}"	36.3%	6.1%	1.7%	0.4%	–
5–9 March 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	40.3%	32.7%	4.8%	2.3%	–	–
10–11 March 2012	34.1%	Democratic United Party}}"	35.4%	3.6%	1.7%	–	–
12–16 March 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	39.4%	33.7%	5.7%	2.3%	–	–
19–23 March 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	37.4%	33.3%	7.5%	2.1%	–	–
date=2 April 2012	access-date=13 April 2012	language=ko}}	26–30 March 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	39.8%	30.5%	8.1%	2.3%	–	–
28 March 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	37.8%	30.5%	12.1%	2.3%	1.9%	1.6%
31 March 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	38.3%	33.5%	7.2%	2.4%	0.3%	1.0%
1 April 2012	Saenuri Party}}"	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.{{cite news|url=http://blogs.aljazeera.net/asia/2012/04/12/tale-two-koreas|title=A tale of two Koreas| work=Al Jazeera Blogs

청년당 (대한민국)}}|votes13=73194|seats13=0|votes13_2=5569|seats13_2=0|totseats13=0|sc13=New

By city/province

Region	Saenuri	DUP	UPP	LFP	Ind.	Total
seats	Saenuri Party}}"		Democratic United Party}}"		Unified Progressive Party}}"		Liberty Forward Party}}"		Total	127	106	7	3	3	246
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

Region	Saenuri	DUP	UPP	LFP	Other	Saenuri Party}}"
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
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." Sim Dae-pyung, leader of the Liberty Forward Party, announced his resignation after the party's poor performance.

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

Notes

: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.

References

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Yoon, Sangwon. (11 April 2012). "S. Korea Ruling Party Risks Election Loss". Bloomberg Businessweek.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20120402093117/http://atimes.com/atimes/Korea/ND03Dg01.html The South: Busy at the polls]. ''Asia Times'', 2 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
[http://english.donga.com/srv/service.php3?biid=2011121742158 Ruling party`s emergency committee]. ''[[The Dong-A Ilbo]]'', 17 December 2011. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
{{usurped
[https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17685360 South Korea's ruling party holds on to parliament]. [[BBC News]], 12 April 2012. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
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[http://www.arirang.co.kr/News/News_View.asp?nseq=127643&code=Ne2&category=2 D-6: Election Race Outside Capital Region]. [[Arirang News]], 11 April 2012. Retrieved 11 April 2012.
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