1996 South Korean legislative election

Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 12 April 1996. The result was a victory for the New Korea Party, which won 139 of the 299 seats in the National Assembly. Voter turnout was 63.9%. Although the New Korea Party remained the largest party in the National Assembly, it failed to win the majority.

Electoral system

Of the 299 seats, 253 were elected in single-member districts via first-past-the-post voting, while the remainder were allocated via proportional representation at the national level. Proportional seats were only available to parties which won 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
				Last election	Before election
style="background:Template:Party color" |	New Korea PartyTemplate:Efn	Kim Young-sam	Conservatism	Template:Composition bar	Template:Composition bar	Government
style="background:Template:Party color" |	National Congress for New Politics	Cho Soon-hyung	Liberalism	Did not exist	Template:Composition bar	Opposition
style="background:Template:Party color" |	United Democratic Party	Park Il Chang Eul-byung		Template:Composition barTemplate:Efn	Template:Composition bar	Opposition
rowspan="2" style="background:Template:Party color" |	United Liberal Democrats	Kim Jong-pil	Conservatism	Template:Composition barTemplate:Efn	Template:Composition bar	Opposition
Template:Composition barTemplate:Efn

The governing New Korea Party (formerly the Democratic Liberal Party) of President Kim Young-sam, lost its absolute congressional majority. The election was held three years into President Kim's five year mandate.

The opposition National Congress for New Politics was formed by veteran opposition leader Kim Dae-jung and his supporters in the Democratic Party. Kim had retired from politics following his loss in the 1992 Presidential election but formed the new party after his return in 1995.

The right-wing United Liberal Democrats was led by former Prime Minister of South Korea Kim Jong-pil, a former ally of President Kim. He had been a member of the former ruling Democratic Liberal Party but broke with it after Kim's victory in 1992. It joined with Kim Dae Jung's opposition and formed coalition.

The United Democratic Party had once been the premier opposition party. It supported Kim Dae-jung's unsuccessful Presidential campaign in 1992 and was the largest opposition party in the outgoing National Assembly. However, following the defection of Kim and his supporters, the party was reduced to a minor force. It later merged to Kim Young-sam's party.

Results

By city or province

Region	Total seats	Seats won
		NKP	NCNP	ULD	UDP	Ind.
		style="background:Template:Party color" |	style="background:Template:Party color" |	style="background:Template:Party color" |	style="background:Template:Party color" |	style="background:Template:Party color" |
Seoul	47	27	18	0	1	1
Busan	21	21	0	0	0	0
Daegu	13	2	0	8	0	3
Incheon	11	9	2	0	0	0
Gwangju	6	0	6	0	0	0
Daejeon	7	0	0	7	0	0
Gyeonggi	38	18	10	5	3	2
Gangwon	13	9	0	2	2	0
North Chungcheong	8	2	0	5	0	1
South Chungcheong	13	1	0	12	0	0
North Jeolla	14	1	13	0	0	0
South Jeolla	17	0	17	0	0	0
North Gyeongsang	19	11	0	2	1	5
South Gyeongsang	23	17	0	0	2	4
Jeju	3	3	0	0	0	0
Constituency total	253	121	66	41	9	16
PR list	46	18	13	9	6	0
Total	299	139	79	50	15	16

External links

• 1996 elections in South Korea Inter-Parliamentary Union