Legislative elections were held in South Korea on 11 April 2012. The election was won by the ruling Saenuri or New Frontier Party, which renewed its majority in the National Assembly,^[1] despite losing seats. The election was read as a bellwether for the presidential election to be held later in the year.^[2] The result confounded exit polls and media analysis, which had predicted a closer outcome.^[3]

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2012 South Korean legislative election

← 2008 11 April 2012 2016 →
All 300 seats in the National Assembly 151 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	54.24% ( 8.16pp)
Party Leader % Seats +/– Saenuri Park Geun-hye 42.80 152 −15 Democratic United Han Myeong-sook 36.46 127 +46 Unified Progressive Lee Jung-hee Rhyu Si-min Sim Sang-jung 10.31 13 +8 Liberty Forward Lee Hoi-chang 3.24 5 −13 Independents – – 3 −22 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results by district Speaker before Speaker after Chung Ui-hwa (acting) Saenuri Kang Chang-hee Saenuri

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The South Korean National Assembly consists of 246 directly elected seats and 54 nationwide proportional representation seats chosen under an FPTP-PR parallel voting system.^[4] 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. In South Korea's presidential system, the head of state chooses the cabinet, but the loss of control in the parliament could have hampered President Lee's government substantially.^[5]

Four parties won seats in the 2012 election:

• Saenuri Party (Korean: 새누리당, Saenuri-dang), led by Park Geun-hye.^[6]
  The largest conservative party and incumbent government. Formerly name the Grand National Party,^[7] the party was renamed in February after a period of internal crisis in which an Emergency Response Commission assumed control of the party.^[8][9]
• Democratic United Party (Korean: 민주통합당, Minju Tonghap-dang), led by Han Myeong-sook. The largest liberal party and principal opposition.^[10][11]
• Liberty Forward Party (Korean: 자유선진당, Jayu Seonjin-dang), led by Sim Dae-pyung. The second-largest conservative party with its primary support base in Chungcheong.^[12]
• Unified Progressive Party (Korean: 통합진보당, Tonghap Jinbo-dang), led jointly by Rhyu Si-min, Lee Jung-hee, and Sim Sang-jeong.^[13] The largest left-progressive party.^[14][15]

Other parties that put forward candidates included the left-wing New Progressive Party and the centre-right Korea Vision Party.

The conservative parties were fragmented, particularly between Saenuri and the new KVP over the latter recruiting high-profile defected members of the incumbent party and those who were denied tickets in the election, which was also reflective of a division grew between Park's leadership and loyalists of Lee Myung-bak.^[16] However, the DUP–UPP coalition also came under strain due to irregularities in the UPP's primaries that involved co-leader Lee Jung-hee.^[17]

Campaigning for the election officially began on 29 March, though party leaders toured the country beforehand to rally support for their bids.^[18] The international media suggested that the main issues in the campaign were economic, including inflation, educational and housing costs, unemployment and underemployment, the income gap, and social welfare, while the North Korean issue did not play a role.^[2][7]

The opposition DUP tried to harness discontent with the incumbent Lee's administration, and called on the electorate to adjudge the election as a referendum on Lee's presidency.^[19] The opposition coalition endeavored to depict the ruling party as unsocial and favoring the rich, while promising to create jobs.^[20] The incumbent government emphasised the threat of North Korea and made the case for continuing their hard line towards the northern neighbour and maintaining a close alliance with the United States. They accused the opposition of jeopardising the free trade agreement with the U.S. The DUP had demanded renegotiation of the treaty and threatened to cancel it in case of the United States' refusal to negotiate.^[19]

The international media highlighted the candidacy of Cho Myung-chul, a professor who defected from North Korea in 1994.^[21][22] In its newspaper Rodong Sinmun, the North Korean Workers' Party called on the electorate to vote out the incumbent government: "Young voters, students and people must deliver a crushing defeat to the traitors."^[1]

Polls were barred in the final week of the election, just before indications suggested the two largest parties would get somewhere between 130–135 seats each. A high turnout, particularly with the youth, was seen as beneficial to the opposition.^[2]

The voting centres were open from 6:00−18:00. Voting occurred via electronic ballot counting and scanning that gave an instantaneous result.^[6] Cho Myung-chul's successful candidature was the first time that one of the 23 thousand North Korean refugees living in the South was elected to the National Assembly.^[21]

President Lee said that the "people made wise choices. The government will do its best to manage state affairs in a stable manner and take care of the people's livelihood". The DUP's secretary-general Park Sun-sook conceded the election and added: "The DUP failed to turn public calls for punishing the ... ruling party into reality. We apologise for disappointing supporters. We will sincerely think over what today's election means and try ceaselessly to be reborn as a party the people can lean and rely on."^[1] Sim Dae-pyung, leader of the Liberty Forward Party, announced his resignation after the party's poor performance.^[40]

On 13 April, the DUP leader Han Myeong-sook announced her resignation on account of her party's defeat.^[41]

• List of members of the National Assembly (South Korea), 2012–2016

1.^ Comparison includes the Pro-Park Coalition, which split from and subsequently reintegrated with the Grand National Party.

2.^ This survey asked separate questions on party support and voting intention. The latter result is reported here.

3.^ This survey dealt specifically with seats allocated by proportional representation.