2016 South Korean legislative election

2016 South Korean legislative election

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All 300 seats in the National Assembly 151 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	58.15% (3.91pp; Const. votes) 58.03% (3.79pp; PR votes)
Majority party Minority party   Leader Kim Chong-in Kim Moo-sung Party Democratic Saenuri Last election 127 seats[a] 157 seats[b] Seats won 123 122 Seat change 4 35 Constituency vote 8,881,369 9,200,690 % and swing 37.00% (0.85pp) 38.33% (7.15pp) Regional vote 6,069,744 7,960,272 % and swing 25.55% (11.09pp) 33.50% (12.54pp)   Third party Fourth party   Leader Ahn Cheol-soo Chun Jung-bae Sim Sang-jung Party People Justice Last election Did not exist Did not exist Seats won 38 6 Seat change New New Constituency vote 3,565,451 395,357 % and swing 14.85% (New) 1.65% (New) Regional vote 6,355,572 1,719,891 % and swing 26.75% (New) 7.24% (New)
Speaker before election Chung Eui-hwa Saenuri Elected Speaker Chung Sye-kyun Democratic

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Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 13 April 2016. All 300 members of the National Assembly were elected, 253 from first-past-the-post constituencies and 47 from proportional party lists. The election was an upset victory for the liberal Democratic Party, which defied opinion polling by winning a plurality of seats in the election and defeating the ruling conservative Saenuri Party by one seat. In votes for party lists, however, Democratic Party came third, behind the Saenuri Party in first place and the new People Party in second.

The election marked an upheaval in the South Korean party system, installing a hung parliament for the first time since 2000 and a three-party system for the first time since 1996.^[1] The People Party attained a kingmaker position in the new Assembly, while the leadership of the Saenuri Party including chairman Kim Moo-sung resigned en masse following their defeat, relinquishing control of the party to an emergency response commission.

The 2016 legislative election was the first to be held in South Korea following the formation of the People Party and the enforcement of controversial Constitutional Court rulings dissolving the left-wing Unified Progressive Party and mandating the redistricting of the Assembly's constituencies.

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