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%.
The elections were the first time in Korean history that the citizens were allowed to vote for a national legislative body. The elections would lead to a constitution, roughly based on the constitution of the United States. 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. 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. 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, denounced the elections as they would dash hopes of reunification with North Korea, but could not prevent them from happening.
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.
Conduct
Much of the Korean Left and the Nationalist right boycotted the elections. The result was that many of those running in the election were pro-Rhee candidates. In 1946, during the elections, there were suspicions that the U.S. military government had illegally intervened to support the moderates. 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. Moreover, most independence activists were nationalists rather than communists.
The elections were marred by terrorism resulting in 600 deaths between March and May. 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, and did not delay the elections.
The people of Jeju island saw the election as a something that would cause division The Jeju uprising occurred, during which tens of thousands of Jeju people were killed.
Results
By city/province
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 0.9em;"
! rowspan="3" |Region
! rowspan="3" |Total<br>seats
! colspan="8" |Seats won
|-
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |NARRKI
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |KNP
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |KY
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |NY
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |TLF
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |FF
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |Other
! class="unsortable" style="width:60px;" |Ind.
|-
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:;" |
! style="background:#000;" |
! style="background:" |
! style="background:#c93;" |
! style="background:#663;" |
! style="background:white;" |
! style="background:;" |
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Seoul
!10
|1
|4
|2
|0
|0
|0
|1
|2
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Gyeonggi
!29
|7
|2
|3
|0
|0
|0
|1
|16
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Gangwon
!12
|6
|0
|1
|0
|0
|0
|0
|5
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |North Chungcheong
!12
|2
|1
|1
|0
|0
|0
|0
|8
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |South Chungcheong
!19
|10
|0
|1
|0
|0
|0
|0
|8
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |North Jeolla
!22
|6
|4
|1
|2
|0
|1
|0
|8
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |South Jeolla
!29
|5
|10
|1
|1
|0
|1
|2
|9
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |North Gyeongsang
!33
|11
|5
|2
|0
|1
|0
|3
|11
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |South Gyeongsang
!31
|6
|3
|0
|3
|0
|0
|2
|17
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |Jeju
!3
|1
|0
|0
|0
|0
|0
|1
|1
|- class="sortbottom"
! style="text-align: left;" |Total
!200
!55
!29
!12
!6
!1
!2
!10
!85
|}
Gallery
<gallery>
Republic of korea trunout of the Constituent Assembly election.svg|Turnout
1948SKelection.jpg
</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