1948 South Korean Constitutional Assembly election

none South Korea 1948 1946 1950 95.50% All 200 seats in the Constituent National Assembly 101 10 May 1948 yes National Association (South Korea) Syngman Rhee 25.87 55 Korea Democratic Kim Seong-su 13.51 29 #000 Korea Youth Ji Cheong-cheon 9.66 12 National Youth Lee Beom-seok 2.23 6 #c93 Taehan Labour Federation 1.57 1 #663 Farmers Federation 0.77 2 Other parties – 5.92 10 Independents – 40.47 85 Republic_of_Korea_Constituency_of_The_Constituent_Assembly_election_1948_districts_result.png Results by constituency Speaker None Rhee Syng-man National Association (South Korea) Constitutional Assembly elections were held in South Korea on 10 May 1948. They were held under the U.S. military occupation, with supervision from the United Nations, and resulted in a victory for the National Association for the Rapid Realisation of Korean Independence, which won 55 of the 200 seats, although 85 were held by independents. Voter turnout was 95%.Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p428 0-19-924959-8 The elections were the first time in Korean history that the citizens were allowed to vote for a national legislative body. The Korean Peninsula had been under Japanese colonial rule for thirty-five years (1910–1945), and for hundreds of years before that, it had been governed by the (Yi Dynasty) Korean royal family and scholarly officials. Background thumb|left|Voting in the election The elections were a milestone in Korean political history. The Korean people had not previously experienced democracy under written constitutional rule; the very foundation of South Korean politics were still under construction and were unstable.Kim, Ilpyong. Young, Whan Kihl. Political Change in South Korea. The Korean PWPA, Inc. Paragon House, New York. 1988. p24. The elections would lead to a constitution, roughly based on the constitution of the United States. In 1948 the subject of an election of any kind in South Korea was an issue worldwide. On 8 and 9 March 1948, UN delegates from Australia, Canada, India, and Syria expressed their doubts and some complete rejection of the elections on 10 May 1948 for South Korea.Robert Tarbell Oliver Robert T. Oliver Syngman Rhee and American Involvement in Korea, 1942-1960: A Personal Narrative https://books.google.com/books?id=y1xxAAAAMAAJ 1978 Seoul, South Korea Panmun Book Company 568651495 149 The UN delegates were concerned by Korea's political maturity at the time, feeling that the elections might not validly express the popular will in a country which had only been independent for four years.Richard C. Allen Korea's Syngman Rhee: An Unauthorized Portrait https://books.google.com/books?id=O_VkCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA94 3 February 2016 Rutland Vermont Charles E. Tuttle Publishing 978-1-4629-1809-6 94 Some Korean politicians, such as Kim Koo and Kim Kyu-sik, denounced the election as it would dash the hopes of reunification with North Korea. However, a vote in the South Korean Interim Legislature on 10 March ruled 40 to 0 in favor of holding the election. The elections were originally intended to be held throughout the Korean Peninsula, but Soviet Union forces and Kim Il-sung refused the UN supervisors entry into North Korea for the elections.Carter Malkasian The Korean War 1950-1953 https://books.google.com/books?id=ZGoA65bSFpQC&pg=PA13 2001 Taylor & Francis 978-1-57958-364-4 13 They were therefore held only in the accessible territory, making the elections a purely South Korean event. Because of this, Kim Koo the last president of the Korean Provisional Government and Kim Kyu-sik the former chairman of the South Korean Interim Legislature,Weems Benjamin 1948 Behind the Korean Election https://www.jstor.org/stable/3022008 Far Eastern Survey 17 12 142–147 10.2307/3022008 3022008 0362-8949 subscription denounced the elections as they would dash hopes of reunification with North Korea, but could not prevent them from happening. The voters elected members of a constitutional convention, which then voted on the constitution and re-convened as the national legislature to elect the president. At the proceedings, they left one hundred seats open in the Constituent National Assembly for North Koreans to vote on when they were able. North Korea rejected a nationwide general election based on population proportion and insisted that the election be held with equal representation between the South and the North on a 1:1 basis. South Korea had twice the population of North Korea, and anti-communist sentiment was very strong in the South. South Korea was marred with political violence in the days preceding the election, with roughly 323 people being killed in riots or police raids, and more than 10,000 arrested.Slater, Joseph E., "Voices in the Wind: American Opposition to the Korean War" (1983). Honors Papers. 648. Pg.44 Electoral system The right to vote was granted to all individuals aged 21 and above, regardless of gender, and those with pro-Japanese collaborationist backgrounds were deprived of their voting rights.Yoon Sang-hyun 5.10 general election 2011 (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, 한국민족문화대백과) https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0038395 Conduct Much of the Korean Left and the Nationalist right boycotted the elections.Slater, Joseph E., "Voices in the Wind: American Opposition to the Korean War" (1983). Honors Papers. 648. Pg.43 The result was that many of those running in the election were pro-Rhee candidates.Slater, Joseph E., "Voices in the Wind: American Opposition to the Korean War" (1983). Honors Papers. 648. Pg.43 In 1946, during the elections, there were suspicions that the U.S. military government had illegally intervened to support the moderates.Yoon Sang-hyun 1946 South Korean legislative election 2011 (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, 한국민족문화대백과) https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0012153 Because of this, many Koreans actively participated in voting. At that time, many Koreans saw communists as proxies of foreign powers because they supported trusteeship.Yoon Sang-hyun anti- trusteeship movement 2011 (Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, 한국민족문화대백과) https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0033478 Moreover, most independence activists were nationalists rather than communists. The elections were marred by terrorism resulting in 600 deaths between March and May. The Korean War in world history Univ Pr of Kentucky Stueck William 14 May 2004 https://books.google.com/books?id=9yqLZUITEI0C&pg=PA38 0-8131-2306-2 38 In April, North Korea, supposedly in an effort to delay the elections, sponsored a unity conference in Pyongyang to promote reunification of the two Koreas, which both Kim Koo and Kim Kyu-sik attended. The conference was inconclusive towards any upcoming reunification,August 2020 and did not delay the elections.Allen, p. 93 The people of Jeju Island saw the election as a something that would cause divisionWright, Edward Reynolds. Korean Politics in Transition. University of Washington Press. Seattle Washington. 1975. Page 19 The Jeju uprising occurred, during which tens of thousands of Jeju people were killed. http://www.jejuweekly.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=657 Islanders still mourn April 3 massacre Jeju weekly March 31, 2010 2013-05-05 Song Jung Hee Results National Association 1755543 55 Korea Democratic Party 916322 29 Korea Youth Party 655653 12 #000 National Youth Party 151043 6 Taehan Labour Federation 106629 1 #c93 Farmers Federation 52512 2 #663 Other parties 401554 10 Independents 2745483 85 7216942 270707 0 7840871 Nohlen et al.The official results are inconsistent, with party totals around 400,000 lower than the reported number of valid votes.Nohlen et al., p428 Results by province or city Province/CitySeatsNAKDPKYPOthersINDSeoul101421Korean Democratic Party: 12Gyeonggi297231Korea Independence Party: 116Gangwon12615North Chungcheong122118South Chungcheong191018North Jeolla226413National Youth Party: 2Farmers Federation: 18South Jeolla2951014National Youth Party: 1Farmers Federation: 1Danmin Party: 1Daesonghoe: 19North Gyeongsang3311524Taehan Labor Federation: 1Education Association: 1Jeondohoe: 1National Unification Headquarters: 111South Gyeongsang31635National Youth Party: 3Korea Republican Party: 1Busan 15 Club: 117Jeju311Taehan Youth Party: 11Total20055291219National Youth Party: 6Farmers Federation: 2Busan 15 Club: 1Daesonghoe: 1Danmin Party: 1Education Association: 1Jeondohoe: 1Korea Republican Party: 1Korean Independence Party: 1Korean Democratic Party: 1National Unification Headquarters: 1Taehan Labour Federation: 1Taehan Youth Party: 185Source: National Election Commission당선인통계 https://info.nec.go.kr/main/showDocument.xhtml?electionId=0000000000&topMenuId=EP&secondMenuId=EPEI03 National Election Commission Gallery See also List of members of the South Korean Constituent Assembly, 1948–1950 1946 North Korean local elections 1947 North Korean local elections People's Republic of Korea Notes References External links Category:Legislative elections in South Korea South Korea Constitutional Category:Allied occupation of Korea Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results Category:Constituent assembly elections in Asia