Uri Party won 152; GNP won 121By 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.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.