2024 South Korean Legislative Election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 10 April 2024. All 300 members of the National Assembly were elected, 254 from first-past-the-post constituencies and 46 from proportional party lists. The two largest parties, the liberal Democratic Party and the conservative People Power Party, once again set up satellite parties to take advantage of the electoral system.

The election served as a "mid-term evaluation" for the administration of President Yoon Suk-yeol as it approached its third year. Additionally, there was significant interest in whether the ruling party could surpass the constraints of the ruling coalition, which did not secure a majority in the previous general election, and gain the necessary momentum to govern effectively during the remainder of its term.

The election saw opposition parties, primarily the Democratic Party, retain their majority in the National Assembly. The new legislators had their first meeting on 30 May.

Background

Redistricting

On 28 February 2024, the ruling and opposition parties reached a consensus to redraw the electoral districts. Subsequently, the National Assembly's plenary session passed an amendment to the Public Offices Election Act, resulting in the reformation of the electoral districts. In comparison to the 21st National Assembly elections, there was an increase of one constituency, bringing the total to 254, while the seats for proportional representation decreased by one, totaling 46.

Electoral system

The National Assembly's 300 seats were elected by a mixed-member majoritarian electoral system with ''de facto'' parallel voting:
*254 constituency seats are elected via first-past-the-post voting
*46 seats are elected by proportional representation using largest remainder method.

The minimum voting age is set at 18.

Campaign

The election was held amid several political and socioeconomic issues in South Korea such as corruption, with President Yoon Suk-yeol of the People Power Party facing criticism over the handling of issues involving his wife and a former minister, and party leaders such as the Democratic Party's Lee Jae-myung and Rebuilding Korea Party's Cho Kuk facing trials for bribery and forgery respectively, as well as rising inflation and the ongoing medical crisis. One major talking point was an incident on 18 March when President Yoon visited a grocery store in Seoul to check consumer prices and describing the 875-won ($0.65) price of a green onion he found as reasonable, only for it to emerge that the onions were being sold at a discount and that the true price of onions was three to four times higher. The incident led to opposition candidates bringing out green onions at campaign rallies and the hashtag #greenonions875won becoming a trending topic on social media throughout the election. In response, the National Election Commission banned voters from bringing green onions to polling stations, citing concerns over "election interference". This was in turn, widely ridiculed and led to an increase in demand for green onion-themed merchandise.

On 27 October 2023 the Justice Party and Green Party announced their intention to form an electoral alliance and invited other left-wing parties to participate. This move was heavily criticized by Justice Party deputies Jang Hye-young and Ryu Ho-jeong, as well as former Justice Party Youth Committee Chair Kim Chang-in; all three believe that the Justice Party should form electoral alliances not by ideology, but with any "third zone" party opposed to the Democratic and People Power parties.

On 2 January 2024 Lee Jae-myung was stabbed in an assassination attempt while visiting the construction site of an airport in Gadeokdo, Busan. He was later criticised for using a sexually derogative term to describe People Power Party politician Na Kyung-won during a criticism of her pro-Japanese views.

On 15 January 2024 the Green Party and Justice Party announced a left-wing election coalition called the "Green-Justice Party." On the same day, Basic Income Party leader Yong Hye-in announced a pro-Democrat electoral coalition to counter the People Power Party.

Throughout the campaign the People Power Party argued that President Yoon's government has been unable to push its reform agenda forward since taking office in 2022 due to an uncooperative National Assembly controlled by the opposition, while the Democratic Party described Yoon's administration as "incompetent", accusing it of causing a socioeconomic downturn and mishandling several controversial issues. The Rebuilding Korea Party campaigned for an early end to Yoon's presidency, with Cho Kuk pledging to turn Yoon into "first a lame duck, then a dead duck".

Political parties

Candidates

Lawmakers not standing for re-election

By 14 February 2024, a total of 16 current members of the National Assembly had announced their intention not to stand for re-election.

Opinion polls

Conduct

Early voting opened on 5 April and lasted until 7 April. Among those who cast their votes early were People Power Party leader Han Dong-hoon, who voted in Seoul, and Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung, who voted in Daejeon. At least 13.8 million voters participated in early voting, equivalent to about 31% of the electorate.

On election day, voting in 14,259 polling stations opened at 06:00 and closed at 18:00. Overall turnout was estimated at 67%, an increase of 0.8% from 2020, and the highest recorded for a legislative election in South Korea since 1992.

Results

Exit polls indicated that the Democratic Party and its partner, the Democratic Alliance of Korea, would win between 168 and 197 seats in the National Assembly, while the People Power Party and its partner, the People Future Party, were expected to win between 85 and 111 seats. The Rebuilding Korea Party, which only contested proportional representation seats, was projected to win 15 seats. Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was projected to keep his seat in Gyeyang B of Incheon against People Power Party candidate and former land minister Won Hee-ryong, winning 56.1% and 42.8% of the vote respectively. The Justice Party failed to win seats for the first time since its foundation in 2012.

Among the elected candidates in proportional representation seats was Park Choong-kwon (representing the People Future Party), a North Korean defector who previously worked in the North Korean nuclear weapons programme before fleeing to the South in 2009.

The election also saw the highest number of invalid votes cast for proportional representation seats since its introduction in 2004, with the National Electoral Commission tallying 1,309,931 such ballots, equivalent to 4.4% of votes cast.

Constituency seats won by city/province

Party-list results by city/province

By constituency

By proportional representation list

Voter turnout by region

Incumbents who lost re-election

Reactions

Following the release of exit polls, Han Dong-hoon expressed disappointment over the People Power Party's losses in the election. Cho Kuk called the results of the Rebuilding Korea Party's campaign the "victory of the people" and said it showed the people can "no longer put up with the regression" of the Yoon administration. Cho also called on President Yoon to "apologize for the numerous misdeeds and corruption", and pledged to introduce a special investigation bill against Han Dong-hoon once the new session of the National Assembly is formed. Lee Jae-myung expressed thanks for the Democratic Party's showing, calling it "a great victory for our people", and said the party will "humbly watch the people's choices to the end".

On 11 April Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, presidential chief of staff Lee Kwan-sup, and other senior presidential advisers, with the exception of those in charge of security issues, offered their resignations to Yoon, who pledged to "humbly uphold" the election result and focus on improving the economy and reforming state affairs. In a separate statement, Han Dong-hoon also resigned as head of the People Power Party and took responsibility for its defeat in the election. That same day, Green-Justice leader Sim Sang-jung announced her retirement from politics. Sim, who ran twice for president in 2017 and 2021, was a four-term lawmaker under various minor left-wing parties. In her announcement, Sim assumed responsibility for the party losing all six seats and falling below the 3% required for proportional representation.

In his first public remarks since the election on 16 April, President Yoon reiterated his acceptance of the election result and pledged to "communicate more with a humbler and more flexible attitude, and be the first to listen carefully to the public sentiment."

Analysis

According to Shin Yul, a professor of political science at Myongji University, the election results would likely lead to "extreme confrontation", stating that it "won't be easy for people to see bipartisan cooperation".

Overall, the opposition bloc (including the Rebuilding Korea Party and New Future, which are both led by former members of the Democratic Party and are considerably anti-Yoon) did not receive enough seats to threaten the impeachment of Yoon, which would have required a two-thirds majority, or 200 seats. They won a combined total of 189 against the government alliance and Reform (who are more moderately conservative and big tent) total of 111. Nevertheless, the election result, and overwhelming majority in favor of the governmental opposition, was enough to effectively block any government plans going into the future. ''The Diplomat'' described Yoon Suk-yeol as a "lame duck" for his remaining three years in office. Chae Jin-won of Humanitas College at Kyung Hee University stated that "If Yoon can't find a way to work with the opposition, there is a likelihood of impeachment, which some factions in the ruling party may comply with for the sake of their own political futures."

See also

* List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2024–2028
* 2024 North Korean parliamentary election

Notes

References

{{South Korean elections

Legislative
Legislative election
Legislative elections in South Korea
Presidency of Yoon Suk Yeol