Legislative elections 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 Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
on 25 March 1981.
[ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p420 ]
The new electoral system 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 rep ...
implemented a system of
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, while abolishing the president's power to appoint one-third of the chamber's members. The result was a victory for the
Democratic Justice Party
The Democratic Justice Party (; DJP) was the ruling party of South Korea from 1981 to 1988.
History
Chun had become the country's de facto leader after leading a military coup in December 1979, and was elected president in his own right in ...
, which won 151 of the 276 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 77.7%.
The election was held under the influence of Coup d'état of
1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
and
1980. Major opposition political figures like
Kim Young-sam
Kim Young-sam (; or ; 20 December 1927 – 22 November 2015) was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the seventh president of South Korea from 1993 to 1998.
From 1961, he spent almost 30 years as one of the leaders of t ...
were barred from running.
Kim Dae-jung
Kim Dae-jung (; ; 6 January 192418 August 2009), was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the eighth president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003.
He was a 2000 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for his work for democracy and human ...
was arrested on May 17, 1980, and was sentenced to death on a of "inciting rebellion". Even the
Democratic Republican Party of the late president
Park Chung-hee was forcibly dissolved, and major figures like
Kim Jong-pil
Kim Jong-pil (; ; January 7, 1926 – June 23, 2018), also known colloquially as JP, was a South Korean politician and the founder/first director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA, now the National Intelligence Service). He s ...
was barred from running.
The election, while ostensibly a multi-party election, is widely considered to have been a fraudulent one, with supposed "opposition" politicians being heavily vetted by the
Agency for National Security Planning and the South Korean
Army Security Command
An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
.
Results
By city/province
References
{{South Korean elections
Legislative elections in South Korea
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
Legislative
A legislature is an assembly with the authority to make laws for a political entity such as a country or city. They are often contrasted with the executive and judicial powers of government.
Laws enacted by legislatures are usually known ...