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 ...
on 6 July 1978, the second elections held under the
Restoration Constitution, which gave the members of the National Conference for Unification the power to elect the president.
The National Conference for Unification was elected on 18 May, and the newly sworn-in delegates proceeded to elect the president on 6 July. As in
1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...
, 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 ...
was the only candidate. He was duly re-elected with the support of 2,577 of the 2,581 members. Park Chung Hee would continue in office for just over a year before
his assassination on 26 October 1979 and the subsequent collapse of the Yushin regime.
National Conference for Unification election
The 2,583 members of the second National Conference for Unification were elected on 18 May 1978, with a voter turnout of 79%.
Presidential election
By the time of the presidential election, one delegate had resigned and another had died, meaning there were a total of 2,581 delegates at the Conference on the day of the presidential election.
In order to be elected, a candidate had to receive the vote of over 50% of the incumbent members. With 2,581 delegates in office, Park had to receive at least 1,291 votes to be elected. He received 2,577 votes, 99.85% of the total possible.
As there was only one candidate registered, the only ways the delegates could express opposition to Park was by either abstaining or casting invalid ballots. The only delegate who cast a protest vote was Park Seung-guk of
Daegu
Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea.
It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...
-2 District.
By region
References
{{Asia-election-stub
1978 elections in South Korea
Presidential elections in South Korea
Single-candidate elections