Changing Course? A Critical Analysis of South Korea’s
Parliamentary Election Results
April 16, 2012 Gi-Wook Shin
WALTERH.SHORENSTEINASIA‐PACIFICRESEARCHCENTERATSTANFORD
The 19th National Assembly of Korea
300 members
Saenuri (152) Democratic United (127) Unified Progressive (13)
Liberty Forward (5) Independents (3)
Political Group
Framing of Key Issues
SAENURIPARTY
KORUS FTA & Jeju Naval Base Issues
SAENURIPARTY
UNIFIEDPROGRESSIVEPARTY
Re
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Member Turnover Rate
17th 18th 19th
Total # of seats 299 (100%) 299 (100%) 300 (100%)
First-time members 187 (62.5%) 133 (44.5%) 148 (49.3%)
Member Turnover Rate
223 (72.7%) 161 (53.8%) 184 (62%)
148 (49.3 %) 70 (23.3%)
50 (16.7%)
19 (6.3%)
9 (3.0%)
1 (0.3%)
3 (1.0%)
1st (term) 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th
Ideology and parties Constituency votes % PR block votes %
New Frontier Party Saenuri-dang 9,324,911 43.3% 9,129,226 42.8%
Liberty Forward Party Jayu Seonjin-dang 474,001 2.2% 689,843 3.2%
Conservative 9,798,912 45.5% 9,819,069 46%
Democratic United Party Minju Tonghap-dang
8,156,045 37.9% 7,775,737 36.5%
Unified Progressive Party Tonghap Jinbo-dang
1,291,306 6% 2,198,082 10.3%
Progressive 9,447,351 43.9% 9,973,819 46.8%
Conservative vs. Progressive