Legislative elections were held in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

on 15 April 2004. In the 17th election for the

National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the repr ...

, voters elected 299 members of the legislature. The newly formed Uri Party and other parties supporting President

Roh Moo-hyun Roh Moo-hyun (, ; 1 September 1946 – 23 May 2009) was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea from 2003 to 2008. Roh's pre-presidential political career was focused on human rights advocacy for ...

, who was impeached by the outgoing National Assembly, won a majority of seats. This was the first time a centre-left liberal party won a majority in the National Assembly since 1960.

Electoral system

The election was held under

parallel voting In political science, parallel voting or superposition refers to the use of two or more Electoral system, electoral systems to elect different members of a legislature. More precisely, an electoral system is a superposition if it is a mixture o ...

, with 243 members elected in single-member constituencies via

first-past-the-post voting First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first- ...

and the remainder elected via proportional representation. Proportional seats were only available to parties which won three percent of the national valid vote among seat-allocated parties and/or won five or more constituency seats.

Political parties

The newly formed liberal Uri Party (''Uri-dang'' or ''Our Party'') gained support through its opposition to the impeachment of President Roh. It won 32 out of 49 seats in

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

, 44 out of 62 in

Incheon Incheon is a city located in northwestern South Korea, bordering Seoul and Gyeonggi Province to the east. Inhabited since the Neolithic, Incheon was home to just 4,700 people when it became an international port in 1883. As of February 2020, ...

and

Gyeonggi Gyeonggi Province (, ) is the most populous province in South Korea. Seoul, the nation's largest city and capital, is in the heart of the area but has been separately administered as a provincial-level ''special city'' since 1946. Incheon, ...

, confirming that a majority of voters supported the President Roh. The conservative

Grand National Party The Liberty Korea Party () was a conservative political party in South Korea that was described variously as right-wing, right-wing populist, or far-right. Until February 2017, it was known as the Saenuri Party (), and before that as the Han ...

, which supported the impeachment of President Roh, suffered a loss of support, but won a majority in

North Gyeongsang North Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a province in eastern South Korea, and with an area of , it is the largest province in the Korean peninsula. The province was formed in 1896 from the northern half of the former Gyeongsang province, and remaine ...

and

South Gyeongsang South Gyeongsang Province (, ) is a Administrative divisions of South Korea, province in the southeast of South Korea. The provincial capital is at Changwon. It is adjacent to the major metropolitan center and port of Busan. The UNESCO World Heri ...

regions and retained the 100 seats necessary to block constitutional changes. The progressive, socialist Democratic Labor Party got 13.03% of vote share, but won only 10 out of 299 seats due to the FPTP system. However this was considered as a great triumph within political landscape of South Korea which is traditionally anti-communist and against left-wing policies. DLP also won two FPTP seats in

Ulsan Ulsan (; ), officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh-largest metropolitan city and the eighth-largest city overall, with a population of over 1.1 million inhabitants. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighbo ...

and

Changwon Changwon (; ) is the capital and largest city of South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea (with a population of 1,025,702 ), and the 11th largest city of the South Korea, country. A port city, Changwon is bordered by Masan Bay to the south, and the ...

based on labor movement. The Millennium Democratic Party, formerly the major liberal party, was the second-largest party prior to the election but sustained the biggest loss in the backlash following its leading role in the impeachment of Roh, as much of its support shifted to the Uri Party. The United Liberal Democrats, a conservative regional party based on North Chungcheong and South Chungcheong regions, lost support since its leader, Kim Jong-pil, did not contest the last presidential election.

Results

By city/province

Notes

References

{{South Korean elections Legislative elections in South Korea

Parliamentary elections

Parliamentary In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...