2008 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on April 9, 2008.^[1] The conservative Grand National Party won 153 of 299 seats while the main opposition United Democratic Party won 81 seats.^[2] This election marked the lowest-ever voter turnout of 46%.^[3]

2008 South Korean legislative election

← 2004 9 April 2008 2012 →
All 299 seats in the National Assembly 150 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	46.08% ( 14.55pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– Grand National Kang Jae-seop 37.48 153 +32 United Democratic Han Myeong-sook 25.18 81 −80 Pro-Park Suh Chung-won 13.18 14 New Liberty Forward Lee Hoi-chang 6.85 18 New Democratic Labor Kwon Young-ghil 5.68 5 −5 Creative Korea Han Myeon-hee 3.81 3 New Independents – 11.08 25 +23 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results of the election Speaker before Speaker after Kim Chae-jung United Democratic Kim Hyong-o Grand National

Electoral system

See also: Legislative elections in South Korea

The election was held under parallel voting, with 245 members elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting and the remainder elected via proportional representation. Proportional seats were only available to parties which one three percent of the national valid vote among seat-allocated parties and/or won five or more constituency seats.

Political parties

See also: List of political parties in South Korea

Parties		Leader	Ideology	Seats		Status
				Last election	Before election
	United Democratic Party	Han Myeong-sook	Liberalism	152 / 299 ^[a]	141 / 299	Government
				9 / 299 ^[b]
	Grand National Party	Kang Jae-seop	Conservatism	121 / 299	117 / 299	Opposition
	United Liberal Democrats	Kim Nak-seong		4 / 273	Dissolved
	Liberty Forward Party	Lee Hoi-chang		Did not exist	10 / 299
	Democratic Labor Party	Kwon Young-ghil	Progressivism	10 / 299	7 / 299
	Pro-Park Alliance	Suh Chung-won	Conservatism	Did not exist	3 / 299
	Creative Korea Party	Han Myeon-hee	Centrist reformism	Did not exist	1 / 299

As of April 9, 2008, there were six political parties represented in the 18th National Assembly of South Korea, in addition to independents:

• Grand National Party (한나라당, Hannara-dang), led by Kang Jae-seop. The current major conservative party within the National Assembly. (153 seats won)
• United Democratic Party (통합민주당, Tongham Minju-dang), led by Son Hak-gyu. The current major liberal party within the National Assembly. (81 seats won)
• Liberty Forward Party (자유선진당, Jayu Seonjin-dang), led by Lee Hoi-chang. The Chungcheong Region-strongholder and current second conservative party within the National Assembly against the GNP. (18 seats won)
• Pro-Park Alliance (친박연대, Chin-bak Yeon-dae), led by Seo Cheong-won, although their inspirational leader is former GNP leader Park Geun-hye. A conservative coalition with Park Geun-hye within the National Assembly that broke away from the GNP after a dispute on the GNP's candidate nomination, which happened just before the election. (14 seats won)
• Democratic Labor Party (민주노동당, Minju Nodong-dang), led by Chun Young-se. A minor but the most progressive party within the 18th National Assembly, against both the Grand Nationals and Democrats. (5 seats won)
• Creative Korea Party (창조한국당, Changjo Hanguk-dang), led by Moon Kook-hyun. A minor but pro-environmental liberal party within the National Assembly, against the Grand Nationals. (3 seats won)
• (no seats) The New Progressive Party (진보신당) Jinbo Shin-dang), led by Sim Sang-jeong and Roh Hoe-chan, won 2.94% votes but not enough to gain any seats. The New Progressive Party split from the Democratic Labor Party as a reaction to nationalism after the 2007 presidential elections.

Results

Main article: List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2008–2012

5 81 3 18 14 153 25
Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats
	Grand National Party	6,421,727	37.48	22	7,478,776	43.45	131	153	+32
	United Democratic Party	4,313,645	25.18	15	4,977,508	28.92	66	81	–80
	Pro-Park Alliance	2,258,750	13.18	8	637,351	3.70	6	14	New
	Liberty Forward Party	1,173,463	6.85	4	984,751	5.72	14	18	New
	Democratic Labor Party	973,445	5.68	3	583,665	3.39	2	5	–5
	Creative Korea Party	651,993	3.81	2	72,803	0.42	1	3	+3
	New Progressive Party	504,466	2.94	0	229,500	1.33	0	0	0
	Christian Party	443,775	2.59	0	3,720	0.02	0	0	0
	Party for Peaceful Unification and Family	180,857	1.06	0	334,715	1.94	0	0	New
	Party for Displaced People and National Security	93,554	0.55	0	1,130	0.01	0	0	New
	Socialist Party	35,496	0.21	0				0	0
	Party for Culture and Art	33,966	0.20	0				0	New
	Party for Citizen	17,656	0.10	0				0	New
	United Vocational Party	16,622	0.10	0	881	0.01	0	0	New
	Neo-Future Party	12,122	0.07	0				0	New
	People's Association for Salvation				513	0.00	0	0	New
	Unification Party				51	0.00	0	0	New
	Independents				1,907,326	11.08	25	25	+23
Total		17,131,537	100.00	54	17,212,690	100.00	245	299	0
Valid votes		17,131,537	98.37		17,212,690	98.83
Invalid/blank votes		284,383	1.63		202,976	1.17
Total votes		17,415,920	100.00		17,415,666	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		37,796,035	46.08		37,796,035	46.08
Source: NEC, CLEA, IPU

By region

Region	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	%	Party		Constituency			Proportional
							Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%
Seoul	48	8,078,345	3,701,619	45.8		Grand National Party	1,834,534	51.2	40	1,473,477
						United Democratic Party	1,330,194	37.1	7	1,037,469
						Liberty Forward Party	83,339	2.3	0	175,731
						Democratic Labor Party	72,478	2.0	0	138,751
						Pro-Park Alliance	68,861	1.9	0	382,814
						Creative Korea Party	55,392	1.6	1	169,787
						Others	138,563	3.9	0	285,353
Busan	18	2,841,445	1,218,303	42.9		Grand National Party	568,411	47.3	11	521,286
						United Democratic Party	141,386	11.8	1	152,494
						Pro-Park Alliance	110,940	9.2	0	270,393
						Democratic Labor Party	51,075	4.3	0	63,243
						Liberty Forward Party	33,102	2.8	0	62,238
						Creative Korea Party				45,136
						Others	296,269	24.7	6	82,984
Incheon	12	2,018,699	858,234	42.5		Grand National Party	407,846	48.0	9	335,252
						United Democratic Party	268,622	31.6	2	207,480
						Liberty Forward Party	40,791	4.8	0	51,609
						Democratic Labor Party	29,316	3.4	0	48,937
						Creative Korea Party	3,121	0.4	0	37,007
						Pro-Park Alliance				91,792
						Others	100,089	11.8	1	72,731
Daegu	12	1,899,679	857,041	45.1		Grand National Party	513,667	61.1	8	393,558
						Pro-Park Alliance	132,443	15.7	3	276,790
						Democratic Labor Party	15,097	1.8	0	27,366
						Liberty Forward Party	22,893	2.7	0	33,437
						United Democratic Party	6,466	0.8	0	41,649
						Creative Korea Party				24,621
						Others	150,784	17.9	1	47,769
Gwangju	8	1,034,393	438,379	42.4		United Democratic Party	281,182	64.7	7	304,789
						Democratic Labor Party	33,602	7.7	0	40,550
						Grand National Party	26,553	6.1	0	25,551
						Liberty Forward Party	621	0.1	0	4,048
						Creative Korea Party				16,917
						Pro-Park Alliance				5,595
						Others	92,599	21.3	1	35,500
Daejeon	6	1,101,299	499,193	45.3		Liberty Forward Party	198,355	40.0	5	169,358
						Grand National Party	131,830	26.6	0	122,220
						United Democratic Party	118,756	24.0	1	91,777
						Pro-Park Alliance	21,896	4.4	0	42,670
						Democratic Labor Party	4,207	0.8	0	19,109
						Creative Korea Party	2,149	0.4	0	18,051
						Others	18,532	3.7	0	29,884
Ulsan	6	812,693	371,834	45.8		Grand National Party	196,218	53.4	5	157,453
						Democratic Labor Party	67,185	18.3	0	52,308
						Pro-Park Alliance	20,347	5.5	0	68,728
						United Democratic Party	8,309	2.3	0	34,295
						Creative Korea Party				12,799
						Liberty Forward Party				12,382
						Others	75,209	20.5	1	29,348
Gyeonggi	51	8,290,855	3,626,666	43.7		Grand National Party	1,734,696	48.3	32	1,465,283
						United Democratic Party	1,331,142	37.0	17	207,480
						Pro-Park Alliance	136,810	3.8	1	51,609
						Democratic Labor Party	100,374	2.8	0	48,937
						Liberty Forward Party	86,620	2.4	0	169,682
						Creative Korea Party	4,068	0.1	0	157,101
						Others	201,036	5.6	1	1,480,584
Gangwon	8	1,166,766	600,692	51.5		Grand National Party	266,217	44.8	3	266,768
						United Democratic Party	146,032	24.6	2	109,108
						Liberty Forward Party	50,013	8.4	0	37,168
						Democratic Labor Party	17,075	2.9	0	34,841
						Creative Korea Party	1,647	0.3	0	21,455
						Pro-Park Alliance				72,078
						Others	113,022	19.0	3	44,589
North Chungcheong	8	1,151,531	567,437	49.3		Grand National Party	222,457	39.5	1	189,681
						United Democratic Party	198,905	35.3	6	133,199
						Liberty Forward Party	79,401	14.1	1	76,521
						Pro-Park Alliance	20,275	3.6	0	68,800
						Democratic Labor Party	12,849	2.3	0	31,717
						Creative Korea Party	1,770	0.3	0	18,717
						Others	27,195	4.8	0	38,940
South Chungcheong	10	1,542,618	744,018	48.2		Liberty Forward Party	341,041	46.4	8	273,564
						Grand National Party	221,115	30.1	0	196,418
						United Democratic Party	105,250	14.3	1	98,045
						Pro-Park Alliance	11,209	1.5	0	52,283
						Democratic Labor Party	7,855	1.1	0	34,052
						Creative Korea Party	2,040	0.3	0	18,392
						Others	46,971	6.4	1	51,307
North Jeolla	11	1,424,401	676,727	47.5		United Democratic Party	363,125	54.7	9	424,663
						Grand National Party	47,528	7.2	0	61,091
						Democratic Labor Party	8,344	1.3	0	49,047
						Creative Korea Party				19,335
						Pro-Park Alliance				15,493
						Liberty Forward Party				10,847
						Others	244,936	36.9	2	79,922
South Jeolla	12	1,496,888	748,744	50.0		United Democratic Party	454,274	61.8	9	486,790
						Grand National Party	44,801	6.1	0	46,256
						Democratic Labor Party	35,078	4.8	0	73,414
						Liberty Forward Party	602	0.1	0	7,721
						Creative Korea Party				16,805
						Pro-Park Alliance				12,884
						Others	200,396	27.3	3	83,879
North Gyeongsang	15	2,097,907	1,113,646	53.1		Grand National Party	594,105	54.3	9	579,285
						Pro-Park Alliance	66,577	6.1	1	255,422
						United Democratic Party	33,928	3.1	0	60,857
						Liberty Forward Party	22,029	2.0	0	31,385
						Democratic Labor Party	11,735	1.1	0	44,329
						Creative Korea Party				25,521
						Others	365,552	33.4	5	86,961
South Gyeongsang	17	2,424,602	1,171,689	48.3		Grand National Party	593,399	51.4	13	517,675
						Democratic Labor Party	105,168	9.1	2	122,089
						United Democratic Party	98,205	8.5	1	120,889
						Liberty Forward Party	14,143	1.2	0	48,700
						Creative Korea Party	4,765	0.4	0	39,335
						Pro-Park Alliance				206,373
						Others	339,467	29.4	1	144,318
Jeju	3	413,904	221,444	53.5		United Democratic Party	91,732	41.8	3	65,720
						Grand National Party	75,399	34.4	0	70,473
						Democratic Labor Party	12,227	5.6	0	21,718
						Liberty Forward Party	7,399	3.4	0	9,072
						Creative Korea Party				11,014
						Pro-Park Alliance	3,080	1.4	0	26,741
						Others	29,668	13.5	0	12,708
Source: Psephos

Notes

1. Uri Party
2. Democratic Party

References

1. "2008 Electoral Calendar". Maximiliano Herrera's Human Rights Site. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
2. . Archived from the original on 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
3. Political apathy leads to record-low voter turnout, The Hankyoreh, Retrieved on April 10, 2008