Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 26 April 1988.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p420 The result was a victory for the ruling Democratic Justice Party (DJP), which won 125 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 75.8%. This was the first time the ruling party did not win a majority in the National Assembly since 1960, the first free and fair elections in Korean history. In January 1990, the DJP merged with other two opposition parties, leaving the Kim Dae-jung-led Peace Democratic Party to be the sole opposition party.

Electoral system Of the 299 seats, 224 were elected in single-member districts via first-past-the-post voting, while the remainder were allocated via a modified proportional representation at the national level among parties that won five or more seats in constituencies. One-half of those seats would be awarded to the top party (which was then eliminated from further consideration for national seats), with the remainder allocated based on the number of constituency seats won.

Political parties

Parties Leader Ideology Seats Status Last election Before election Democratic Justice Party Roh Tae-woo Conservatism Reunification Democratic Party Kim Myeong-yun Liberalism Did not exist Peace Democratic Party Park Yeong-suk New Democratic Republican Party Kim Jong-pil Conservatism Democratic Korea Party Yu Chi-song Liberalism New Korean Democratic Party Shin Do-hwan Korean National Party Lee Man-sup Conservatism New Socialist Party Socialism Dissolved New Democratic Party Ryu Gap-jong Liberalism Dissolved The governing Democratic Justice Party (DJP) had recently elected President Roh Tae-woo. While remaining the largest party, the DJP lost an absolute congressional majority. The party was hindered by a stronger opposition and the unpopularity of former party leader and President Chun Doo-hwan.

The opposition Peace Democratic Party led by veteran opposition leader Kim Dae-jung became the second largest party, winning more seats than another opposition Reunification Democratic Party (RDP). This was vindication for Kim Dae-jung, who came had come third in the 1987 South Korean presidential election. However, the election also showed the party's limitations, coming in as third place after DJP and RDP in popular vote and only winning seats in the Honam and Sudogwon, and nowhere outside of them.

For Kim Young-sam's Reunification Democratic Party the election was a major setback, winning third most seats in congress. This was after Kim had placed second in the first democratic presidential election, just ahead of Kim Dae-jung.

The New Democratic Republican Party (NDRP) led by former prime Minister Kim Jong-pil came a distant fourth. However, thanks to the failure of the DJP to win an absolute majority, the oppositions emerged as the major powerbrokers in the new National Assembly.

In January 1990, the DJP merged with the parties of Kim Young-sam and Kim Jong-pil to form the Democratic Liberal Party, with the former becoming its nominee in the 1992 presidential elections.

There were 224 constituency seats and 75 at large seats elected from lists in proportion to parties' share of constituency seats.

Results

By city/province + Results by city/provinces RegionDJPRDPPDPNDRPHDPInd. Totalseats Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seats % Seoul 10 26.2 10 23.4 17 27.0 3 16.1 0 2.1 2 4.0 42Busan 1 32.1 14 54.3 0 1.9 0 6.8 0 1.8 0 2.4 15Daegu 8 48.2 0 28.4 0 0.7 0 13.2 0 1.6 0 2.5 8Incheon 6 37.5 1 28.3 0 14.1 0 15.5 0 1.4 0 0.9 7Gwangju 0 0.7 0 0.4 5 88.6 0 0.6 – 0 0.6 5Gyeonggi 16 36.1 4 22.9 1 15.9 6 18.2 0 0.6 1 4.2 28Gangwon 8 43.6 3 21.6 0 4.0 1 20.2 0 0.2 2 9.4 14North Chungcheong 7 43.7 0 16.0 0 1.4 2 33.3 – 0 4.9 9South Chungcheong 2 30.2 2 15.0 0 3.8 13 46.5 0 0.7 1 3.0 18North Jeolla 0 28.8 0 1.3 14 61.5 0 2.5 0 0.3 0 4.3 14South Jeolla 0 22.9 0 0.8 17 67.9 0 1.3 1 3.0 0 4.0 18North Gyeongsang 17 51.0 2 24.6 0 0.9 2 16.0 0 0.8 0 6.6 21South Gyeongsang 12 40.2 9 36.9 0 1.0 0 10.3 0 0.9 1 8.8 22Jeju 0 36.0 1 27.1 0 6.0 0 3.4 – 2 27.4 21Constituency total 87 34.0 46 23.8 54 19.3 27 15.6 1 1.3 9 4.8 224PR seats 38 13 16 8 0 – 75Total seats 125 59 70 35 1 9 299

References

External links 1988 elections in South Korea Inter-Parliamentary Union