1978 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 12 December 1978 to elect 154 members of the National Assembly. Another 77 members appointed by President Park Chung-hee were indirectly elected by the National Conference for Unification on 21 December 1978.

1978 South Korean legislative election

12 and 21 December 1978
154 of the 231 seats in the National Assembly 78 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	77.08% ( 5.72pp)
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Park Chung-hee Yi Cheol-seung Yang il-dong Party Democratic Republican New Democratic Democratic Unification Last election 73 seats 52 seats 2 seats Seats won 68 61 3 Seat change 5 9 1 Popular vote 4,695,955 4,861,204 1,095,507 Percentage 31.70% 32.82% 7.39% Swing 6.98pp 0.27pp 2.75pp
Speaker before election Chung Il-kwon Democratic Republican Elected Speaker Baek Du-jin Presidential appointee

Despite garnering 169,000 fewer popular votes than the opposition New Democratic Party, the ruling Democratic Republican Party won a supermajority victory with 68 of the 154 elected seats in the National Assembly and an additional 77 members appointed by President Park. Voter turnout was 77.1%.

Electoral system

Two-thirds of the seats were elected from two-member constituencies via single non-transferable vote. The remaining one-third of the seats were presidential appointees, nominated by president Park and confirmed by the National Conference for Unification elected in May 1978.

Results

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	New Democratic Party	4,861,204	32.82	61	+9
	Democratic Republican Party	4,695,995	31.70	68	–5
	Democratic Unification Party	1,095,057	7.39	3	+1
	Independents	4,160,187	28.09	22	+3
Presidential appointees				77	+4
Total		14,812,443	100.00	231	+12
Valid votes		14,812,443	98.60
Invalid/blank votes		210,927	1.40
Total votes		15,023,370	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		19,489,490	77.08
Source: Nohlen et al.

By city/province

Region	Total seats	Seats won
		DRP	NDP	DUP	Ind.
Seoul	22	9	11	1	1
Busan	10	4	5	0	1
Gyeonggi	16	8	7	0	1
Gangwon	10	5	3	0	2
North Chungcheong	8	3	4	1	0
South Chungcheong	14	7	5	0	2
North Jeolla	12	6	4	0	2
South Jeolla	20	8	7	1	4
North Gyeongsang	22	9	8	0	5
South Gyeongsang	18	8	7	0	3
Jeju	2	1	0	0	1
Total	146	68	61	3	22

Presidential appointees

On 21 December 1978, the National Conference for Unification indirectly elected 77 members of the National Assembly appointed by President Park Chung-hee. Out of the 2,581 delegates, 2,573 were present with 2,539 of them approving the election of Park's appointees.

Party		Votes	%	Seats
Presidential appointees		2,539	99.10	77
Against		23	0.90	–
Total		2,562	100.00	77
Valid votes		2,562	99.57
Invalid/blank votes		11	0.43
Total votes		2,573	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,581	99.69
Source: JoongAng Ilbo

By city/province

Region	Votes			Delegates
	For	Against	Invalid	Voted	Absent	Total
Seoul	376	9	4	389	2	391
Busan	143	1	1	145	0	145
Gyeonggi	319	0	0	319	0	319
Gangwon	149	2	0	151	0	151
North Chungcheong	130	1	0	131	0	131
South Chungcheong	229	4	1	234	0	234
North Jeolla	200	1	0	201	2	203
South Jeolla	310	1	1	312	0	312
North Gyeongsang	373	2	1	376	3	379
South Gyeongsang	284	2	2	288	1	289
Jeju	26	0	1	27	0	27
Total	2,539	23	11	2,573	8	2,581
Source: Naver News Library