Democracy assitance & elections news from the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS)
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Country Profile:

Upcoming Elections

  • Parliamentary
    April 2012
  • Presidential
    December 2012

South Korea

Description of government structure:

  • Chief of State: President LEE Myung-bak
  • Head of Government: Prime Minister YOON Jeung-hyun
  • Assembly: South Korea has a unicameral National Assembly (Kukhoe) with 299 seats.

Description of electoral system:

  • The President is elected by plurality vote to serve a 5-year term.
  • The Prime Minister is appointed by the President with the approval of the parliament.
  • In the National Assembly (Kukhoe), 243 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 56 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** In order to gain representation in the ordinal tier, parties must obtain either three percent of the national vote or at least five seats in the nominal tier.

Population:

  • Population: 48,636,068 (July 2010 est.)

Future elections

  • Presidential - December 2012
  • Parliamentary - April 2012

Past elections

Last Updated on 08/13/2010

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