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Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 27 April 1971.^[1] The result was a victory for incumbent president Park Chung-hee, who received 53% of the vote. Voter turnout was 80%.^[2] Within a year of his re-election, Park declared martial law and introduced the Yushin Constitution, which vested him with sweeping and near-dictatorial powers.

These would be the last contested presidential elections in South Korea until 1981, the last direct presidential election until 1987, and last presidential election in which the victor received an absolute majority of the popular vote until Park's daughter, Park Geun-hye, did so in 2012.

Nominations

Democratic Republican Party

The DRP Convention was held on 17 March 1971, at which incumbent president Park Chung-hee became the presidential nominee.^[3] Under the constitution, Park would have normally been ineligible to run in 1971, as presidents were limited to two consecutive terms. However, shortly after his re-election in 1967, the DRP-dominated legislature passed a constitutional amendment allowing the incumbent president to run for three consecutive terms.

New Democratic Party

By tradition, the most senior members of the party leadership were supposed to run for president. It was assumed that either former Korea University president Yu Jin-oh, the sitting party chair Yu Jin-san, or former president Yun Po-sun would be chosen for the party's candidate. However, the norm was broken by lawmaker Kim Young-sam, who was only in his early forties, when he declared his bid for the New Democratic nomination for president on 8 November 1969. He was followed by Kim Dae-jung and Lee Cheol-seung, both prominent politicians in their forties. The party leadership tried to discourage the three candidates at first, but later conceded that it was now time for the new generation to take over. Lee Cheol-seung withdrew his bid and endorsed Kim Dae-jung after the party leadership, including Chairman Yu Jin-san, announced they would be backing Kim Young-sam.

At the convention held on 29 September 1970, the establishment-endorsed Kim Young-sam surprisingly lost to the minority faction's Kim Dae-jung, who became the party's candidate.^[4]

Candidate	First round		Second round
Candidate	Delegates	%	Delegates	%
Kim Dae-jung	382	43.16	458	51.81
Kim Young-sam	421	47.57	410	46.38
Invalid/blank votes	82	9.27	16	1.81
Total	885	100	884	100

Results


Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Park Chung-hee	Democratic Republican Party	6,342,828	53.20
	Kim Dae-jung	New Democratic Party	5,395,900	45.26
	Jin Bok-ki [ko]	People's Party	122,914	1.03
	Park Ki-chul [ko]	National Party [ko]	43,753	0.37
	Lee Jong-yun	Liberal Democratic Party	17,823	0.15
Total			11,923,218	100.00

Valid votes			11,923,218	96.02
Invalid/blank votes			494,606	3.98
Total votes			12,417,824	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			15,552,236	79.85
Source: Nohlen et al.

By province

Province or city	Park Chung Hee		Kim Dae-jung		Jin Bok-ki		Park Ki-chul		Lee Jong-yun		Total
Province or city	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Total
Seoul	805,772	(40.0%)	1,198,018	(59.4%)	6,881	(0.3%)	4,811	(0.2%)	1,426	(0.1%)	2,016,098
Gyeonggi	687,985	(48.9%)	696,582	(49.5%)	13,770	(1.0%)	6,547	(0.5%)	2,995	(0.2%)	1,407,879
Gangweon	502,722	(60.0%)	325,556	(38.8%)	7,326	(0.9%)	2,985	(0.4%)	1,390	(0.2%)	839,979
Chungnam	556,632	(53.5%)	461,978	(44.4%)	14,411	(1.4%)	5,285	(0.5%)	2,322	(0.2%)	1,040,628
Chungbuk	312,744	(57.3%)	222,106	(40.7%)	6,989	(1.3%)	2,662	(0.5%)	1,154	(0.2%)	545,655
Jeonnam	479,737	(34.4%)	874,974	(62.8%)	31,986	(2.3%)	4,362	(0.3%)	2,122	(0.2%)	1,393,181
Jeonbuk	308,850	(35.5%)	535,519	(61.5%)	21,162	(2.4%)	3,167	(0.4%)	1,646	(0.2%)	870,344
Busan	385,999	(55.7%)	302,452	(43.6%)	1,974	(0.3%)	2,518	(0.4%)	583	(0.1%)	693,526
Gyeongnam	891,119	(73.4%)	310,595	(25.6%)	6,793	(0.6%)	4,580	(0.4%)	1,634	(0.1%)	1,214,721
Gyeongbuk	1,333,051	(75.6%)	411,116	(23.3%)	9,838	(0.6%)	6,438	(0.4%)	2,374	(0.1%)	1,762,817
Jeju	78,217	(56.9%)	57,004	(41.4%)	1,784	(1.3%)	398	(0.3%)	177	(0.1%)	137,580

References

^ Dieter Nohlen, Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II, p420 ISBN 0-19-924959-8
^ Nohlen et al., p465
^ "의왕시사". dws124.dongwonweb.co.kr. Retrieved 2018-04-22.
^ "대권 경선사/DJ가 YS에 대역전승/70년 신민당". JoongAng Ilbo (in Korean). 1992-05-10. Retrieved 2018-04-22.