41.8% of Incumbents Fail To Return to Congress

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41.8% of Incumbents Fail To Return to Congress

According to Yonhap News, of the 87 incumbent members of congress, 41.8 percent lost their seats in this year's elections.

The number of people voted into the National Assembly who are new to politics or have not been in politics for some time are 106 of the total 227 ridings. When compared to incumbent members of congress 53.3 percent will be new to Congress and 46.7 percent will continue on in their seats, over half of the 16th Assembly will be new-comers.

When looking at the election returns, one districts where incumbents lost their seats was Inchon. Twelve tried for re-election, but eight failed with only four returning to Congress. In Kyonggi Province, 37 incumbents ran but 21 candidates failed to win their ridings, a failure rate of 56.8 percent. In Seoul, 44.4 percent of those hoping to return to Congress failed to re-win their seats.

Therefore, in the national capital region, 41 of the total 86 incumbents hoping for re-election were defeated at the polls, a surprising 47.6 percent of all incumbents.

However, in contrast with this trend, in South Kyongsang Province, only 2 of the 14 hopeful incumbents failed to win their ridigns. In North Kyongsang Province, only 3 failed among the 15 incumbents. The provinces together had the highest rate of re-election for their incumbent politicians.

As for the nation's other ridings, Pusan had 17 incumbents running for office but 6 failed to be re-elected. Similarly in Taegu 4 incumbents failed to return to office, 2 in Kwangju, 4 in Taejon, 2 in Ulsan, 7 in Kangwon Province, 3 in North Chungchong Province, 7 in South Chungchong Province, 2 in North Cholla Province, 2 in South Cholla, and 2 on the island of Cheju.

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