1985 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 12 February 1985.[1] The result was a victory for the Democratic Justice Party, which won 148 of the 276 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 84.6%.

1985 South Korean legislative election
South Korea
12 February 1985

All 276 seats in the National Assembly
139 seats needed for a majority
Turnout84.57% (Increase 6.83pp)
PartyLeader % Seats +/–
Democratic Justice Chun Doo-hwan 35.25 148 -3
New Korean Democratic Lee Min-woo 29.26 67 New
Democratic Korea Yu Chi-song 19.68 35 -46
National Kim Jong-cheol 9.16 20 -5
New Socialist Party 1.45 1 New
New Democratic Party 0.56 1 New
Independents 3.25 4 -7
Results by constituency
Speaker before Speaker after
Chae Mun-shik
Democratic Justice
Lee Jae-hyeong
Democratic Justice

Electoral system

Of the 276 seats, 184 were elected in two-member constituencies via single non-transferable vote, while the remainder were allocated via proportional representation at the national level among parties that won five or more seats in constituencies. Two-thirds of those seats would be awarded to the top party (which was then eliminated from further consideration for national seats), with the remainder allocated based on vote share.

Political parties

Parties Leader Ideology Seats Status
Last election Before election
Democratic Justice Party Chun Doo-hwan Conservatism
151 / 276
149 / 276
Government
Democratic Korea Party Yu Chi-song Liberalism
81 / 276
59 / 276
Opposition
New Korean Democratic Party Lee Min-woo Did not exist
32 / 276
Opposition
Korean National Party Kim Jong-cheol Conservatism
25 / 276
24 / 276
Opposition
New Socialist Party
2 / 276
[lower-alpha 1]
1 / 276
Opposition
2 / 276
[lower-alpha 2]
Civil Rights Party
2 / 276
0 / 276
Opposition
Democratic Farmer's Party
1 / 276
Dissolved Opposition
Liberal National Party
1 / 276
[lower-alpha 3]
0 / 276
Opposition

The ruling Democratic Justice Party (DJP) of President Chun Doo-hwan managed to remain the largest party in the National Assembly but faced a tougher challenge from the united opposition.

The New Korean Democratic Party (NKDP) was formed by former members of the New Democratic Party, notably opposition leaders Kim Dae-jung and Kim Young-sam despite being still barred from running. The party made strong gains across the country, largely thanks to its focus on greater democratic rights.

The Korean National Party had been formed by former members of the Democratic Republican Party in the run-up to the 1981 elections. After making some key gains, the party lost ground in these elections, largely thanks to the gains of the NKDP.

The opposition Democratic Korea Party had been the premier opposition party following the 1981 elections, but it suffered major defections to the NKDP.

Results

PartyVotes%Seats
FPTPPRTotal+/–
Democratic Justice Party7,040,81135.258761148–3
New Korean Democratic Party5,843,82729.26501767New
Democratic Korea Party3,930,96619.6826935–46
Korean National Party1,828,7449.1615520–5
New Socialist Party288,8631.45101New
Workers and Farmers Party185,8590.93000New
New Democratic Party112,6540.56101New
Civil Rights Party75,6340.38000–2
National Group Party17,2570.09000New
Independents650,0283.25404–7
Total19,974,643100.00184922760
Valid votes19,974,64398.46
Invalid/blank votes312,0291.54
Total votes20,286,672100.00
Registered voters/turnout23,987,83084.57
Source: Nohlen et al.

By city/province

Region Total
seats
Seats won
DJP NKDP DKP KNP NSP NDP Ind.
Seoul 28 13 14 1 0 0 0 0
Busan 12 3 6 2 1 0 0 0
Daegu 6 2 2 1 1 0 0 0
Incheon 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 0
Gyeonggi 20 10 4 3 3 0 0 0
Gangwon 12 6 0 1 4 0 0 1
North Chungcheong 8 4 2 1 1 0 0 0
South Chungcheong 16 8 4 4 0 0 0 0
North Jeolla 14 7 2 1 3 0 1 0
South Jeolla 22 11 5 5 0 1 0 0
North Gyeongsang 20 10 4 3 1 0 0 2
South Gyeongsang 20 10 5 4 1 0 0 0
Jeju 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Constituency total 184 87 50 26 15 1 1 4
PR list 92 61 17 9 5 0 0 0
Total 276 148 67 35 20 1 1 4

Notes

  1. New Politics Party
  2. Democratic Socialist Party
  3. as Peaceful People Party

References

  1. Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p420 ISBN 0-19-924959-8
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