At stake in this election:

• 273 seats in the National Assembly (Kukhoe)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: President KIM Dae-jung
• Head of Government: Prime Minister KIM Chong-p'il
• Assembly: South Korea has a unicameral National Assembly (Kukhoe) with 273 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), 227 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 46 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** In this election, the number of seats will be lowered from 299 to 273.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: The Grand National Party (GNP)
  • Leader: LEE Hoi Chang
  • Seats won in this election: 133
  • Seats won in last election: 139
• Party: Millennium Democratic Party (MDP)
  • Leader: KIM Dae-jung
  • Seats won in this election: 115
  • Seats won in last election: 79
• Party: United Liberal Democrats (ULD)
  • Leader: CHO Sun
  • Seats won in this election: 17
  • Seats won in last election: 50

Last Parliamentary election:

• -Parliamentary elections last held: April 11, 1996.
  -Seats decided in the last election: 299

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 47,008,111 (2000)
• Registered Voters: 33,482,387 (2000)

Gender Data:

·         Female Population: 23,426,713 (2000)

·         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: 16 (following the 2000 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: 7,051,216 (est.)