At stake in this election:

• 299 seats in the National Assembly (Kukhoe)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President LEE Myung-bak
• Head of Government: Prime Minister KIM Hwang-sik
• 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), 245 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 54 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.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: New Frontier Party / Saenuri-dang 새누리당*
  • Leader: PARK Guen-hye
  • Seats won in this election: 152
  • Seats won in last election: 166
• Party: Democratic United Party (DUP) / Minju Tonghabdang 민주통합당
  • Leader: HAN Myeong-sook
  • Seats won in this election: 127
  • Seats won in last election: 89
• Party: Unified Progressive Party (UPP) / Tonghapjinbodang 통합진보당
  • Leader: RHYU Si-min
  • Seats won in this election: 13
  • Seats won in last election: 7
• Party: Liberty Forward Party / 자유선진당
  • Leader: LEE In-jae
  • Seats won in this election: 10
  • Seats won in last election: 15

* The Saenuri Party was called the Grand National Party until February 2012.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 50,004,441 (2012)
• Registered Voters: 40,205,055 (April 2012)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 25,145,837 (2012)

·         Is South Korea a signatory to CEDAW: Yes (25 May 1983)

·         Has South Korea ratified CEDAW: Yes (27 December 1984)

·         Gender Quota: Yes[5]

·         Female candidates in this election: Yes

·         Number of Female Parliamentarians: 47 (following the 2012 elections)

·         Human Development Index Position: 17 (2014)

·         Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI) Categorization: N/A

Disability Data:

·         Is South Korea a signatory to CRPD: Yes (30 March 2007)

·         Has South Korea ratified CRPD: Yes (11 December 2008)

·         Population with a disability: 7,500,666 (est.)