2008 South Korean legislative election

← 2004

9 April 2008

2012 →

← outgoing members elected members →

All 299 seats to the National Assembly
150 seats needed for a majority

Turnout

46.08% (

15.55pp; Const. votes)
46.08% (

15.55pp; PR votes)

	Majority party	Minority party	Third party

Leader	Kang Jae-seop	Son Hak-gyu	Suh Chung-won
Party	Grand National	United Democratic	Pro-Park
Last election	121 seats	161 seats	Did not exist
Seats won	153	81	14
Seat change	32	80	New
Constituency vote	7,478,776	4,977,508	637,351
% and swing	43.45% (5.55pp)	28.92% (20.16pp)	3.70% (New)
Regional vote	6,421,727	4,313,111	2,258,750
% and swing	37.48% (1.71pp)	25.18% (21.05pp)	13.18% (New)

	Fourth party	Fifth party	Sixth party

Leader	Lee Hoi-chang	Chon Young-sae	Han Myeon-hee
Party	Liberty Forward	Democratic Labor	Creative Korea
Last election	Did not exist	10 seats	Did not exist
Seats won	18	5	3
Seat change	New	5	3
Constituency vote	984,751	583,665	72,803
% and swing	5.72% (New)	3.39% (0.92pp)	0.42% (New)
Regional vote	1,173,463	973,445	651,993
% and swing	6.85% (New)	5.68% (7.35pp)	3.81% (New)

Speaker before election

Lim Chae-jung
Uri

Elected Speaker

Kim Hyong-o
Grand National

This article is part of a series on
Politics of South Korea


Government Constitution of South Korea Law Human rights
Legislature National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik (I) Deputy Speaker Lee Hak-young (D) Deputy Speaker Joo Ho-young (P) Members
Executive President of South Korea Choi Sang-mok (I, Acting) Prime Minister of South Korea Choi Sang-mok (I, Acting) State Council Administrative divisions
Judiciary Supreme Court of Korea Chief Justice Jo Hee-de Constitutional Court of Korea President Moon Hyungbae (Acting)
Elections Presidential elections Legislative elections Local elections By-elections
Political parties Democratic PPP Basic Income Party
Korean conflict Reunification Sunshine Policy
South Korea portal Other countries
v t e

This article is part of a series on

Politics of South Korea

Government

Constitution of South Korea

Legislature

National Assembly

Members

Executive

President of South Korea

Choi Sang-mok (I, Acting)

Prime Minister of South Korea

Choi Sang-mok (I, Acting)

Judiciary

Supreme Court of Korea

Chief Justice Jo Hee-de

Constitutional Court of Korea

President Moon Hyungbae (Acting)

Elections

By-elections

Political parties

Basic Income Party

Korean conflict

South Korea portal

Other countries

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on April 9, 2008. The conservative Grand National Party won 153 of 299 seats while the main opposition United Democratic Party won 81 seats. This election marked the lowest-ever voter turnout of 46%.

Electoral system

The election was held under parallel voting, with 245 members elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting and the remainder elected via proportional representation. Proportional seats were only available to parties which one three percent of the national valid vote among seat-allocated parties and/or won five or more constituency seats.

Political parties

Parties		Leader	Ideology	Seats		Status
Parties		Leader	Ideology	Last election	Before election	Status
	United Democratic Party	Han Myeong-sook	Liberalism	152 / 299	141 / 299	Government
	United Democratic Party	Han Myeong-sook	Liberalism	9 / 299	141 / 299	Government
	Grand National Party	Kang Jae-seop	Conservatism	121 / 299	117 / 299	Opposition
	United Liberal Democrats	Kim Nak-seong		4 / 273	Dissolved
	Liberty Forward Party	Lee Hoi-chang		Did not exist	10 / 299
	Democratic Labor Party	Kwon Young-ghil	Progressivism	10 / 299	7 / 299
	Pro-Park Alliance	Suh Chung-won	Conservatism	Did not exist	3 / 299
	Creative Korea Party	Han Myeon-hee	Centrist reformism	Did not exist	1 / 299

As of April 9, 2008, there were six political parties represented in the 18th National Assembly of South Korea, in addition to independents:

Grand National Party (한나라당, Hannara-dang), led by Kang Jae-seop. The current major conservative party within the National Assembly. (153 seats won)
United Democratic Party (통합민주당, Tongham Minju-dang), led by Son Hak-gyu. The current major liberal party within the National Assembly. (81 seats won)
Liberty Forward Party (자유선진당, Jayu Seonjin-dang), led by Lee Hoi-chang. The Chungcheong Region-strongholder and current second conservative party within the National Assembly against the GNP. (18 seats won)
Pro-Park Alliance (친박연대, Chin-bak Yeon-dae), led by Seo Cheong-won, although their inspirational leader is former GNP leader Park Geun-hye. A conservative coalition with Park Geun-hye within the National Assembly that broke away from the GNP after a dispute on the GNP's candidate nomination, which happened just before the election. (14 seats won)
Democratic Labor Party (민주노동당, Minju Nodong-dang), led by Chun Young-se. A minor but the most progressive party within the 18th National Assembly, against both the Grand Nationals and Democrats. (5 seats won)
Creative Korea Party (창조한국당, Changjo Hanguk-dang), led by Moon Kook-hyun. A minor but pro-environmental liberal party within the National Assembly, against the Grand Nationals. (3 seats won)
(no seats) The New Progressive Party (진보신당) Jinbo Shin-dang), led by Sim Sang-jeong and Roh Hoe-chan, won 2.94% votes but not enough to gain any seats. The New Progressive Party split from the Democratic Labor Party as a reaction to nationalism after the 2007 presidential elections.

Results

Main article: List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2008–2012


5813181415325
Party		Proportional			Constituency			Total seats	+/–
Party		Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%	Seats	Total seats	+/–
	Grand National Party	6,421,727	37.48	22	7,478,776	43.45	131	153	+32
	United Democratic Party	4,313,645	25.18	15	4,977,508	28.92	66	81	–80
	Pro-Park Alliance	2,258,750	13.18	8	637,351	3.70	6	14	New
	Liberty Forward Party	1,173,463	6.85	4	984,751	5.72	14	18	New
	Democratic Labor Party	973,445	5.68	3	583,665	3.39	2	5	–5
	Creative Korea Party	651,993	3.81	2	72,803	0.42	1	3	+3
	New Progressive Party	504,466	2.94	0	229,500	1.33	0	0	0
	Christian Party [ko]	443,775	2.59	0	3,720	0.02	0	0	0
	Party for Peaceful Unification and Family	180,857	1.06	0	334,715	1.94	0	0	New
	Party for Displaced People and National Security	93,554	0.55	0	1,130	0.01	0	0	New
	Socialist Party	35,496	0.21	0				0	0
	Party for Culture and Art	33,966	0.20	0				0	New
	Party for Citizen	17,656	0.10	0				0	New
	United Vocational Party	16,622	0.10	0	881	0.01	0	0	New
	Neo-Future Party	12,122	0.07	0				0	New
	People's Association for Salvation				513	0.00	0	0	New
	Unification Party				51	0.00	0	0	New
	Independents				1,907,326	11.08	25	25	+23
Total		17,131,537	100.00	54	17,212,690	100.00	245	299	0

Valid votes		17,131,537	98.37		17,212,690	98.83
Invalid/blank votes		284,383	1.63		202,976	1.17
Total votes		17,415,920	100.00		17,415,666	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		37,796,035	46.08		37,796,035	46.08
Source: NEC, CLEA, IPU

Constituency results by city/province

Constituency results by city/province
Region	GNP		UDP		Pro-Park		LFP		DLP		CKP		Ind.	Total seats
													Ind.
	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats	%	Seats
Seoul	40	51.2	7	37.1	0	1.9	0	2.3	0	2.0	1	1.6	0	48
Busan	11	47.3	1	11.8	1	9.2	0	2.8	0	4.3	–		5	18
Daegu	8	61.1	0	0.8	3	15.7	0	2.7	0	1.8	–		1	12
Incheon	9	48.0	2	31.6	–		0	4.8	0	3.4	0	0.4	1	12
Gwangju	0	6.1	7	64.7	–		0	0.1	0	7.7	–		1	8
Daejeon	0	26.6	1	24.0	0	4.4	5	40.0	0	0.8	0	0.4	0	6
Ulsan	5	53.4	0	2.3	0	5.5	–		0	18.3	–		1	6
Gyeonggi	32	48.3	17	37.0	1	3.8	0	2.4	0	2.8	0	0.1	1	51
Gangwon	3	44.8	2	24.6	–		0	8.4	0	2.9	0	0.3	3	8
North Chungcheong	1	39.5	6	35.3	0	3.6	1	14.1	0	2.3	0	0.3	0	8
South Chungcheong	0	30.1	1	14.3	0	1.5	8	46.4	0	1.1	0	0.3	1	10
North Jeolla	0	7.2	9	54.7	–		–		0	1.3	–		2	11
South Jeolla	0	6.1	9	61.8	–		0	0.1	0	4.8	–		3	12
North Gyeongsang	9	54.3	0	3.1	1	6.1	0	2.0	0	1.1	–		5	15
South Gyeongsang	13	51.4	1	8.5.	–		0	1.2	2	9.1	0	0.4	1	17
Jeju	0	34.4	3	41.8	0	1.4	0	3.4	0	5.6	–		0	3
Total	131	43.5	66	28.9	6	3.7	14	5.7	2	3.4	1	0.4	25	245

Party-list results by city/province

Party list vote results by city/province
Region	GNP	UDP	Pro-Park	LFP	DLP	CKP	Other
Region							Other
Seoul	40.2	28.3	10.4	4.8	3.8	4.6	7.8
Busan	43.5	12.7	22.6	5.2	5.3	3.8	6.9
Daegu	46.6	4.9	32.7	4.0	3.2	2.9	5.7
Incheon	39.7	24.6	10.9	6.1	5.8	4.4	8.6
Gwangju	5.9	70.4	1.3	0.9	9.4	3.9	8.2
Daejeon	24.8	18.6	8.7	34.3	3.9	3.7	6.1
Ulsan	42.9	9.3	18.7	3.4	14.2	3.5	8.0
Gyeonggi	40.9	26.4	11.4	4.7	4.8	4.4	7.3
Gangwon	45.5	18.6	12.3	6.3	5.9	3.7	7.6
North Chungcheong	34.0	23.9	12.3	13.7	5.7	3.4	7.0
South Chungcheong	27.1	13.5	7.2	37.8	4.7	2.5	7.1
North Jeolla	9.3	64.3	2.3	1.6	7.4	2.9	12.1
South Jeolla	6.4	66.9	1.8	1.1	10.1	2.3	11.5
North Gyeongsang	53.5	5.6	23.6	2.9	4.1	2.4	8.0
South Gyeongsang	45.0	10.5	18.0	4.2	10.6	3.4	8.2
Jeju	32.4	30.2	12.3	4.2	10.0	5.1	5.8
Overall total	37.5	25.2	13.2	6.8	5.7	3.8	7.8
Seat allocation	22	15	8	4	3	2	0

Notes

References

"2008 Electoral Calendar". Maximiliano Herrera's Human Rights Site. Retrieved 2018-12-18.
"Digital Chosunilbo (English Edition) : Daily News in English About Korea". Archived from the original on 2008-04-15. Retrieved 2008-04-10.
Political apathy leads to record-low voter turnout, The Hankyoreh, Retrieved on April 10, 2008

v t e Elections and referendums in South Korea
Presidential elections	1948 1952 1956 1960 (Mar) 1960 (Aug) 1963 1967 1971 1972 1978 1979 1980 1981 1987 1992 1997 2002 2007 2012 2017 2022 Next
Legislative elections	1946 1948 1950 1954 1958 1960 1963 1967 1971 1973 1978 1981 1985 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024 2028
Local elections	1950 1952 1956 1960 1991 1995 1998 2002 2006 2010 2014 2018 2022 2026
By-elections	1976 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
Referendums	1962 1969 1972 1975 1980 1987

Categories: