2004 South Korean legislative election explained

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on April 15, 2004. In the 17th election for the National Assembly, voters elected 299 members of the legislature. The newly formed Uri Party and other parties supporting President Roh Moo-hyun, who was impeached by the outgoing National Assembly, won a majority of seats. This was the first time a centre-left liberal party won a majority in the National Assembly.

Electoral system

See also: Legislative elections in South Korea. The election was held under parallel voting, with 243 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

See also: List of political parties in South Korea.

Parties		Leader	Ideology	Seats		Status
				Last election	Before election
	Grand National Party	Park Geun-hye	Conservatism
	Millennium Democratic Party	Cho Soon-hyung	Liberalism
	United Liberal Democrats	Kim Jong-pil	Conservatism
	Democratic People's Party		Conservatism			rowspan="2"
	New Korea Party of Hope		Conservatism		Dissolved

The newly formed liberal Uri Party (Uri-dang or Our Party) gained support through its opposition to the impeachment of President Roh. It won 32 out of 49 seats in Seoul, 44 out of 62 in Incheon and Gyeonggi, confirming that a majority of voters supported the President Roh.

The conservative Grand National Party, which supported the impeachment of President Roh, suffered a loss of support, but won a majority in North Gyeongsang and South Gyeongsang regions and retained the 100 seats necessary to block constitutional changes.

The progressive, socialist Democratic Labor Party got 13.03% of vote share, but won only 10 out of 299 seats due to the FPTP system. However this was considered as a great triumph considering that political landscape of South Korea is traditionally anti-communist and against left-wing policies. DLP also won two FPTP seats in Ulsan based on the Hyundai labor union.

The Millennium Democratic Party, formerly the major liberal party, was the second-largest party prior to the election but sustained the biggest loss in the backlash following its leading role in the impeachment of Roh, as much of its support shifted to the Uri Party.

The United Liberal Democrats, a conservative regional party based on North Chungcheong and South Chungcheong regions, lost support since its leader, Kim Jong-pil, did not contest the last presidential election.

Results

By region

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Region	Seats	Electorate	Turnout	%	Party		Constituency			Proportional
							Votes	%	Seats	Votes	%
Seoul	48	7,750,350	4,818,901	62.2		Uri Party	2,048,027	42.9	32	1,801,956	37.7
						Grand National Party	1,973,313	41.3	16	1,752,221	36.7
						Millennium Democratic Party	468,013	9.8	0	403,043	8.4
						Democratic Labour Party	165,364	3.5	0	601,447	12.6
						United Liberal Democrats	37,699	0.8	0	101,501	2.1
					bgcolor=		Others	83,355	1.7	0	117,402	2.5
Busan	18	2,796,078	1,731,967	61.9		Grand National Party	898,870	52.6	17	844,734	49.4
					bgcolor=		Uri Party	666,102	38.9	1	577,310	33.7
						Democratic Labour Party	49,268	2.9	0	206,080	12.0
						Millennium Democratic Party	12,067	0.7	0	32,193	1.9
						United Liberal Democrats	5,063	0.3	0	11,333	0.7
					bgcolor=		Others	83,355	4.9	0	40,000	2.3
Incheon	12	1,847,046	1,060,969	57.4	bgcolor=		Uri Party	469,286	44.6	9	414,125	39.5
						Grand National Party	409,477	38.9	3	362,722	34.6
						Democratic Labour Party	78,078	7.4	0	160,663	15.3
						Millennium Democratic Party	54,726	5.2	0	56,282	5.4
						United Liberal Democrats	7,173	0.7	0	22,506	2.1
					bgcolor=		Others	32,318	3.1	0	31,854	3.0
Daegu	12	1,852,487	1,098,886	59.3		Grand National Party	679,375	62.4	12	674,046	62.1
					bgcolor=		Uri Party	291,260	26.8	0	241,850	22.3
						Democratic Labour Party	27,945	2.6	0	125,593	11.6
						Millennium Democratic Party	19,863	1.8	0	12,163	1.1
						United Liberal Democrats	5,358	0.5	0	8,319	0.8
					bgcolor=		Others	64,237	5.9	0	23,849	2.2
Gwangju	7	982,809	591,345	60.2	bgcolor=		Uri Party	316,334	54.1	7	301,972	51.6
						Millennium Democratic Party	213,362	36.5	0	182,295	31.1
						Democratic Labour Party	36,624	6.2	0	76,965	13.1
						United Liberal Democrats	1,516	0.3	0	2,047	0.3
						Grand National Party	720	0.1	0	10,626	1.8
					bgcolor=		Others	20,532	3.5	0	11,849	2.0
Daejeon	6	1,026,281	604,505	58.9	bgcolor=		Uri Party	273,807	45.7	6	262,067	43.8
						Grand National Party	133,838	22.4	0	145,375	24.3
						United Liberal Democrats	132,148	22.1	0	86,644	14.5
						Millennium Democratic Party	19,423	3.2	0	18,551	3.1
						Democratic Labour Party	8,917	1.5	0	70,779	11.8
					bgcolor=		Others	30,225	5.0	0	14,349	2.4
Ulsan	6	751,334	465,665	62.0		Grand National Party	167,454	36.3	3	167,681	36.4
					bgcolor=		Uri Party	129,483	28.1	1	143,573	31.2
						Democratic Labour Party	83,247	18.0	1	100,856	21.9
						United Liberal Democrats	3,728	0.8	0	3,885	0.8
						Millennium Democratic Party	2,630	0.6	0	6,874	1.5
					bgcolor=		Others	74,721	16.2	1	37,683	8.2
Gyeonggi	49	7,316,051	4,368,521	59.7		Uri Party	1,979,555	45.7	35	1,738,893	40.2
						Grand National Party	1,760,838	40.6	14	1,531,102	35.4
						Millennium Democratic Party	288,457	6.6	0	262,206	6.1
						Democratic Labour Party	178,142	4.1	0	584,516	13.5
						United Liberal Democrats	30,133	0.7	0	86,362	2.0
						Others	95,528	2.2	0	119,240	2.8
Gangwon	8	1,134,555	677,372	59.7		Grand National Party	290,070	43.4	2	269,533	40.6
						Uri Party	259,455	38.8	6	252,922	38.1
						Millennium Democratic Party	42,489	6.3	0	23,222	3.5
						Democratic Labour Party	27,693	4.1	0	84,909	12.8
						United Liberal Democrats	1,604	0.2	0	8,854	1.3
						Others	46,784	7.0	0	23,787	3.6
North Chungcheong	8	1,089,850	634,738	58.2		Uri Party	315,698	50.4	8	277,904	44.7
						Grand National Party	203,776	32.6	0	188,491	30.3
						United Liberal Democrats	57,747	9.2	0	39,078	6.3
						Democratic Labour Party	20,862	3.3	0	81,226	13.1
						Millennium Democratic Party	6,520	1.0	0	21,836	3.5
						Others	21,158	3.4	0	13,687	2.2
South Chungcheong	10	1,417,751	793,572	56.0		Uri Party	303,201	38.9	5	295,169	38.0
						United Liberal Democrats	263,191	33.8	4	184,699	23.8
						Grand National Party	123,054	15.8	1	164,667	21.2
						Millennium Democratic Party	27,185	3.5	0	21,836	2.8
						Democratic Labour Party	17,511	2.2	0	81,100	10.5
						Others	45,113	5.8	0	28,593	3.7
North Jeolla	11	1,418,872	868,167	61.2		Uri Party	551,661	64.5	11	573,711	67.3
						Millennium Democratic Party	159,487	18.6	0	115,832	13.6
						Democratic Labour Party	38,895	4.5	0	95,095	11.1
						Grand National Party	1,221	0.1	0	29,095	3.4
						United Liberal Democrats	1,181	0.1	0	8,105	1.0
						Others	102,310	11.9	0	31,091	3.6
South Jeolla	13	1,501,645	952,365	63.4		Uri Party	438,096	49.1	7	433,215	46.7
						Millennium Democratic Party	326,508	36.6	5	313,396	33.8
						Democratic Labour Party	23,851	2.7	0	104,009	11.2
						Grand National Party	2,596	0.3	0	27,025	2.9
						United Liberal Democrats	1,211	0.1	0	9,320	1.0
						Others	99,169	11.1	1	40,489	4.4
North Gyeongsang	15	2,033,803	1,250,632	61.5		Grand National Party	670,963	54.6	14	712,923	58.3
						Uri Party	317,261	25.8	2	280,445	23.0
						Democratic Labour Party	42,038	3.4	1	146,700	12.0
						United Liberal Democrats	7,062	0.6	0	14,174	1.2
						Millennium Democratic Party	5,242	0.4	0	17,126	1.4
						Others	185,950	15.1	0	50,614	4.1
South Gyeongsang	17	2,282,451	1,422,523	62.3		Grand National Party	667,404	48.0	14	660,604	47.3
						Uri Party	481,312	34.6	2	441,987	31.7
						Democratic Labour Party	117,734	8.5	1	220,836	15.8
						United Liberal Democrats	7,766	0.5	0	11,000	0.8
						Millennium Democratic Party	6,837	0.5	0	19,577	1.4
						Others	108,116	7.8	0	42,202	3.0
Jeju	3	395,134	241,422	61.1		Uri Party	117,127	49.4	3	108,725	46.0
						Grand National Party	95,276	40.2	0	72,815	30.8
						Millennium Democratic Party	9,015	3.8	0	12,006	5.1
						Democratic Labour Party	8,060	3.4	0	33,287	14.1
						United Liberal Democrats	1,385	0.6	0	2,635	1.1
						Others	6,333	2.7	0	6,850	2.9
Source: Psephos