Presidential elections A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pr ...

were held in

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

in December 1972 following the promulgation of the

Yushin Constitution The fourth Republic of Korea () was the government of South Korea from November 1972 to March 1981. The Fourth republic was founded on the approval of the Yushin Constitution in the 1972 constitutional referendum, codifying the ''de facto'' di ...

, which created the National Conference for Unification, a body whose functions included being an electoral college for presidential elections. Incumbent President

Park Chung-hee Park Chung-hee (, ; 14 November 1917 – 26 October 1979) was a South Korean politician and army general who served as the dictator of South Korea from 1961 until his assassination in 1979; ruling as an unelected military strongman from 1961 ...

claimed that Western-style liberal democracy would bring more chaos to the economically struggling nation than it could afford. In contrast, he argued that the Yushin system created a "Korean-style democracy" with a strong, unchallenged presidency. He argued this system was necessary to keep the country stable.

National Conference for Unification election

The 2,359 members of the first National Conference for Unification were elected to their six-year term on 5 December 1972, with a voter turnout of 70%. All candidates were required to run as independents. The Constitution gave the body many powers, such as forming policies related to inter-Korean relationship, and determining the president as well as one-third of the National Assembly. However, the body was little more than a figurehead, as all of its actions were controlled by the president. The newly sworn-in members of the National Conference for Unification convened on 23 December to elect Park to a fourth term as president. With no opposition candidates, Park was elected with the support of 2,357 out of the 2,359 delegates. The elections were regarded as a formality.

Presidential election

In order to be elected, a candidate had to receive the vote of over 50% of the incumbent members of the National Council for Unification. With 2,359 delegates in office, Park had to receive at least 1,180 votes to be elected. He received 2,357 votes, 99.92% of the total possible. As there was only one candidate registered, the only way the deputies could vote against Park was by casting invalid ballots. One of the two deputies who did that, Song Dong-heon from Daejeon-1 District, revealed later in his life that he purposefully wrote "박정의" (Park Chung-ee) instead of "박정희" (Park Chung-hee) on his ballot in order to protest the dictatorial regime.Song, Seong-bin. "Stories Behind 1972 Presidential Election: Indirect Election, Told By Then-Deputy Song Dong-heon." Study of Home Province, South Chungcheong Home Province Research Association.

References

{{Asia-election-stub 1972 elections in South Korea Presidential elections in South Korea Single-candidate elections