1992 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 25 March 1992.[1] The result was a victory for the Democratic Liberal Party, which won 149 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly. However, DLP's seats shortened from 218 to 149 seats, less than 150 needed for majority, so this regarded as retreat. Voter turnout was 71.9%.

1992 South Korean legislative election

24 March 1992
All 299 seats to the National Assembly 150 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	71.9% (3.9 pp)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Roh Tae-woo Kim Dae-jung Chung Ju-yung Party Democratic Liberal Democratic Reunification National Party Leader since March 1990 16 September 1991 February 1992 Leader's seat not contesting (President) PR List 1 PR List 3 Last election 219 seats (combined) 71 seats (combined) – Seats won 149 97 31 Seat change 70 26 New Popular vote 7,923,718 6,004,578 3,574,419 Percentage 38.5% 29.2% 17.4% Swing 34.9%p 9.9%p New
Speaker before election Park Joon Kyu Democratic Liberal Speaker Park Joon Kyu Democratic Liberal

Parties

The ruling Democratic Liberal Party was formed in 1990 through the merger of the former ruling Democratic Justice Party along with two opposition parties, the Reunification Democratic Party (RDP) and the New Democratic Republican Party (NDRP). The merger resulted in DLP having a parliamentary supermajority of 218 seats, which was more than 2/3 of whole seats. The party supported President Roh Tae-woo and included among its members former opposition leader Kim Young-sam and former Prime Minister Kim Jong-pil.

The leading opposition party was the Democratic Party. It was formed in 1991 through the merger of the New Democratic Allied Party (called Peace Democratic Party in previous election) led by Kim Dae-jung and former members of the RDP with the minor Democratic Party. The party was co-led by Kim and Lee Ki-taek. DP won 97 seats, which was less than 100 seats, one third of the whole seats, needed to prevent DLP's attempt to revise the constitution.

The Reunification National Party was a conservative, centrist, Economic nationalist, pro-business party led by Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung. The party campaigned heavily on the issue of the economy and the poor record of President Roh's government. The RNP won 31 seats, which was more than 10% of the seats, with 17.4% of popular vote, and joined the opposition.

These major three parties competed in presidential elections on 19 December, which ended with DLP nominee Kim Young-sam's victory.

Results

Party	Votes	%	Seats	+/–
Democratic Liberal Party	7,923,719	38.5	149	–70
Democratic Party	6,004,577	29.2	97	+26
Reunification National Party	3,574,419	17.4	31	New
New Political Reform Party	369,044	1.8	1	New
Popular Party	319,041	1.5	0	New
Fairness People's Party	21,007	0.1	0	New
Independents	2,372,005	11.5	21	+12
Invalid/blank votes	259,670	–	–	–
Total	20,843,482	100	299	0
Registered voters/turnout	29,003,828	71.9	–	–
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

External links

• 1992 election in South Korea Inter-Parliamentary Union