1981 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 25 March 1981.[1]

1981 South Korean legislative election

25 March 1981
All 276 seats to the National Assembly 139 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	77.7% (0.6 pp)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Chun Doo-hwan Yu Chi-song Kim Jong-cheol Party Democratic Justice Democratic Korea Korean National Party Leader since January 1981 January 1981 23 January 1981 Leader's seat not contesting (President) Pyeongtaek, Anseong not contesting Seats won 151 81 25 Popular vote 5,776,624 3,495,829 2,147,293 Percentage 35.6% 21.6% 13.3%
Speaker before election Dissolution of parliament Elected Speaker Jung Rae Hyuk Democratic Justice

The new electoral system abolished appointed seats (1/3 of the National Assembly), which was replaced by proportional representation. The result was a victory for the Democratic Justice Party, which won 151 of the 276 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 77.7%.

The election was held under the influence of Coup d'état of 1979 and 1980. Major opposition political figures like Kim Young-sam was barred from running. Kim Dae-jung was arrested on May 17, 1980, and was a prisoner under death row, having been convicted of a fabricated charge of "inciting rebellion". Even the conservative Democratic Republican Party of Park Chung-hee was forcibly dissolved, and major figures like Kim Jong-pil was barred from running.

The election, while ostensibly a multi-party election, is widely considered to have been a fraudulent one, with supposed "opposition" politicians being heavily vetted by the Agency for National Security Planning and the South Korean Army Security Command.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Democratic Justice Party	5,776,624	35.6	151	+83
Democratic Korea Party	3,495,829	21.6	81	New
Korean National Party	2,147,293	13.2	25	New
Civil Rights Party	1,088,847	6.7	2	New
New Politics Party	676,921	4.2	2	New
Democratic Socialist Party	524,361	3.2	2	New
Democratic Farmer's Party	227,715	1.4	1	New
Peaceful People Party	144,000	0.9	1	New
Socialist Party	122,778	0.8	0	New
Korea Christian Democratic Party	103,893	0.6	0	New
Unification National Group Party	87,977	0.5	0	New
Won-il Democratic Founding Party	76,863	0.5	0	New
Independents	1,734,224	10.7	11	–11
Invalid/blank votes	190,520	–	–	–
Total	16,397,845	100	276	+45
Registered voters/turnout	21,094,468	77.7	–	–
Source: Nohlen et al.

References

1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p420 ISBN 0-19-924959-8