Korean Elections Blog

Jamsil baseball stadium  in the north of the constituency. Picture  By Cyberdoomslayer. About the district: Songpa is in Seoul. It is one of the richest areas in all of Korea right next to Gangnam . Songpa B is mostly the western part of Songpa, stretching from the Jamsil Baseball stadium in the north to the Garak market in the South.   The further north you can go in constituency the richer it becomes and the more likely residents are to vote for the Liberty Korea party. It is also a swing district (bear in mind Grand National and New Frontier are both previous names of Liberty Korea)' 2004 Grand National49.5 Our Open Party 43.5 New Millennium Democratic7.0 (the Our Open Party and the New Millennium Democratic Party had only split shortly before the election and recombined shortly afterwards, good work there guys….) 2008 Grand National 61.6 Democrat 35.7 2012 New Frontier 50% Democratic 46% 2016 Democratic - 44%* ...

Jangsan Falls, in the constituency.  About the constituency: Haeundae is a beach resort that is part of Korea’s 2 nd biggest city Busan.   However the B constituency represents the areas in the north of the area away from the beaches on the east bank of the Suyeong River.     The constituencies boundaries were significantly altered prior to the 2016 election so only the election results from that year are relevant: New Frontier Party (predecessor of Liberty Korea): 49.7% Democratic Party: 37.6% Independent: 13.5% Like most of South-east Korea the area has been a stronghold for ancestors of the Liberty Korea Party. The most recent win for the Democratic party came in a by-election in 1998. However Democrat Moon Jae-in actually got more votes in the constituency in the 2017 Korean Presidential Election than Liberty Korea’s Hong Jun-pyo: Democratic Party: 37.6% Liberty Korea: 32.6% People’s (predecessor of Righteous Future): 17.6% Righte...

About the constituency: The constituency is in the far North-East of the city of Seoul- This is an Assembly Constiuency map of Seoul with Nowon C highlighted in red: Nowon is the densest populated area of Seoul though is bordered to the north by relatively mountainous areas. It is a fairly standard residential suburb of Seoul.   Past results: The district has been highly unpredictable in the past returning candidates from all over the political spectrum in the past. However, one trend is that the Liberty Korea party and its predecessor parties have been in gradual decline here for a decade. The neighbouring Nowon A and Nowon B districts are both held by the Democratic party Previous Results by % (winners % in bold): Democrat* Liberty Korea* Minjung* Righteous Future* Justice party* other 2004 general election 45.2* 37.0 6.8 Did not run Did not run 11.0* 2008 gener...

There are going to be 12 by-elections for the National Assembly on June 13 th . As no party currently has a majority in the National Assembly these elections could be crucial in deciding close votes over the next few years.   I’m going to try and do a blog on all 12 of the elections. In the meantime a list of the elections can be found on wikipedia . but first thought I’d do an introduction of a) how National Assembly elections work b) how the last election in 2016 went and c) what has gone on in terms of party politics in the national assembly since then.   Korean general elections use two different electoral systems and every voter gets two votes. Voters are given a ballot for their constituency/ district- 253 members are elected by first past the post in single member constituencies. Voters are also given a ballot with political parties on it. 47 members are elected from these ballots by proportional representation . 2016 election results: Democratic 123...

The general political atmosphere in South Korea is very favourable for Moon and his Democratic Party. His latest approval ratings are as follows: Company Date Doing Well % Doing badly % Gallup Korea 16-17 May 76 14 RS View 17 May 72 23 Real Meter 14-16 May 74.5% 20.9% The latest political party polls look like this: Company Date Democratic Liberty Korea Righteous Future Justice Party Democracy and Peace Other/ don’t know/ undecided Gallup Meter 16-17 May 51 11 6 4 * 27 RS View 17 May 57 21 6 5 1 10 Real Meter 14-16 May 53.8 19.6 5.7 5.5 3.7 11.7 Gallup shows a very high number of don’t knows on the political party question. However 54% of their don’t knows say that Moon Jae-in is doing well as Preside...