Uri Party won 152; GNP won 121


By Min-Hyuk Park
Published April 16th 2004 in The Dong-A Ilbo (Korea)

The National Election Commission (NEC) officially announced on April 16 that Uri Party garnered 152 victories, including 23 from the proportional representation system, and that the Grand National Party (GNP), Democratic Labor Party (DLP), Millennium Democratic Party (MDP), the United Liberal Democrat (ULD), and National Alliance 21 won 121, 10, nine, four, and one seats respectively, and two independent members were elected.

According to the NEC, the Uri Party won 23 seats from proportional representation system by obtaining 38.3 percent of votes and the GNP won 21 seats by obtaining 35.8 percent. The DLP and MDP respectively won eight and four seats by obtaining 13.0 percent and 7.1 percent of votes.

However, the ULD, which obtained 2.8 percent of votes, could not win a seat from the proportional representation system because it failed to obtain three percent of the votes or win five assemblymen elections from the electoral district.

Meanwhile, it was reported that 60.6 percent of all eligible voters participated in the 17th general election. The percentage increased by 3.4 percent compared to the 16th general election, which was 57.2 percent.

The NEC conveyed that 21,581,550 people out of 35,596,497 of the electorate voted in the April 15 elections.

The general election recorded a success rate of 4.8:1 with 1,167 candidates running for 243 electoral districts and a 3.3:1 success rate with 189 candidates running for the proportional representation assemblymen, which accounts for 56.