View source for March 1960 South Korean presidential election

{{Short description|none}}
{{Infobox election
|country = Republic of Korea
|flag_year = 1949
|type = presidential
|previous_election = 1956 South Korean presidential election
|previous_year = 1956
|next_election = August 1960 South Korean presidential election
|next_year = {{nowrap|August 1960}}
|election_date = 15 March 1960
|module={{infobox election
|embed=yes
|election_name = Presidential election
|image1 = Rhee Syng-Man in 1948.jpg
|candidate1 = '''[[Syngman Rhee]]'''
|party1 = Liberal Party (South Korea)
|popular_vote1 = '''9,633,376'''
|percentage1 = '''100%'''
|title=President
|before_election=[[Syngman Rhee]]
|before_party= Liberal Party (South Korea)
|after_election=[[Syngman Rhee]]
|after_party = Liberal Party (South Korea)
|module={{infobox election
|embed=yes
|election_name = Vice presidential election
|image1 =Lee gi bung.png
|candidate1 = [[Lee Ki Poong]]
|party1 = Liberal Party (South Korea)
|popular_vote1 = 8,337,059
|percentage1 = 79.19%
|image2 = John Myun.jpg
|candidate2 = [[Chang Myon]]
|party2 = Democratic Party (South Korea, 1955)
|popular_vote2 = 1,843,758
|percentage2 = 17.51%
|title=Vice president
|before_election=[[Chang Myon]]
|before_party= Democratic Party (South Korea, 1955)
|after_election=[[Lee Ki-poong]]
|after_party = Liberal Party (South Korea)
}}}}}}
[[Presidential elections in South Korea|Presidential and vice presidential elections]] were held in [[South Korea]] on 15 March 1960.<ref>[[Dieter Nohlen]], Florian Grotz & Christof Hartmann (2001) ''Elections in Asia: A data handbook, Volume II'', p. 420 {{ISBN|0-19-924959-8}}</ref> Shortly after winning reelection to a second term in the [[1952 South Korean presidential election|1952 presidential election]], Rhee had the legislature pass a constitutional amendment exempting himself from the two-term limit, allowing himself to run for and win a third term in [[1956 South Korean presidential election|1956]] and in March 1960.
After the death of Democratic Party opponent [[Cho Pyong-ok]], Rhee was left as the only candidate, and was re-elected unopposed.<ref name="Han">Han, S-J. (1974) ''The Failure of Democracy in South Korea''. University of California Press, p. 28.</ref> Voter turnout was 97.0%.<ref>Nohlen et al., p. 464</ref> With the lack of a meaningful contest in the presidential race, popular focus shifted to the vice presidential contest where Rhee's [[Liberal Party (South Korea)|Liberal Party]] candidate [[Lee Ki-poong]] competed against [[Chang Myon]]. The elections were heavily rigged in Lee's favor, and widespread allegations of corruption and manipulation of the results sparked protests which spiralled into the [[April Revolution]], causing the annulment of the election, the resignation and exile of Rhee, and the collapse of the [[First Republic of South Korea|First Republic]]. The election is described by the ''[[Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]]'' as the "March 15 Election Fraud."<ref>{{Cite web |title=3·15부정선거(三一五不正選擧) March 15 Election Fraud |url=https://encykorea.aks.ac.kr/Article/E0026771 |access-date=2024-01-27 |website=[[Encyclopedia of Korean Culture]] |language=ko}}</ref>
==Results==
===President===
Popular hopes of unseating Rhee were frustrated by the death of his opponent [[Cho Pyong-ok]] several weeks before the election, leaving Rhee to be elected without opposition.<ref>Lie, J. (2000) ''Han Unbound: The Political Economy of South Korea.'' Stanford University Press, p. 36.</ref>
The constitution stated, if there was only one candidate, they were required to receive at least 30% of the total votes cast in order to be elected, including blank and invalid votes. As the only candidate, Rhee received 88.7% of all votes cast. Dissent to the authoritarian president was more apparent in the urban areas than the rest of the country. In Seoul, nearly a third of the votes were invalid or blank, while in the vice presidential election held simultaneously, only 2.9% of the ballots were invalidated.<ref>Results of 1948-1992 Presidential Elections. National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea, 1996.</ref>
{{Election results
|cand1=[[Syngman Rhee]]|party1=[[Liberal Party (South Korea)|Liberal Party]]|votes1=9633376
|invalid=1228896
|electorate=11196490
|source=Nohlen ''et al''.
}}
==== By region ====
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 0.9em;"
! rowspan="3" |Region
! colspan="2" |[[Syngman Rhee]]
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |Invalid
! rowspan="3" |Abstained
! rowspan="3" |%
|-
! colspan="2" style="background:{{party color|Liberal Party (South Korea)}};" |
|-
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Seoul]]
| align="right" |'''684,146'''
| align="right" |'''66.0'''
|align="right" |264,193
|align="right" |25.5
|align="right" |87,577
|align="right" |8.5
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Gyeonggi]]
| align="right" |'''1,139,927'''
| align="right" |'''84.9'''
|align="right" |168,401
|align="right" |12.5
|align="right" |34,990
|align="right" |2.6
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Gangwon Province (South Korea)|Gangwon]]
| align="right" |'''829,131'''
| align="right" |'''94.0'''
|align="right" |44,665
|align="right" |5.1
|align="right" |7,902
|align="right" |0.9
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[North Chungcheong]]
| align="right" |'''510,369'''
| align="right" |'''86.2'''
|align="right" |66,068
|align="right" |11.2
|align="right" |15,855
|align="right" |2.7
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[South Chungcheong]]
| align="right" |'''988,180'''
| align="right" |'''90.7'''
|align="right" |68,952
|align="right" |6.3
|align="right" |32,755
|align="right" |3.0
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[North Jeolla]]
| align="right" |'''919,529'''
| align="right" |'''87.8'''
|align="right" |113,640
|align="right" |10.8
|align="right" |14,619
|align="right" |1.4
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[South Jeolla]]
| align="right" |'''1,398,887'''
| align="right" |'''92.0'''
|align="right" |108,902
|align="right" |7.2
|align="right" |12,802
|align="right" |0.8
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[North Gyeongsang]]
| align="right" |'''1,403,461'''
| align="right" |'''83.9'''
|align="right" |203,105
|align="right" |12.1
|align="right" |66,956
|align="right" |4.0
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[South Gyeongsang]]
| align="right" |'''1,632,159'''
| align="right" |'''86.7'''
|align="right" |190,158
|align="right" |10.1
|align="right" |60,249
|align="right" |3.2
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Jeju Province|Jeju]]
| align="right" |'''127,587'''
| align="right" |'''99.0'''
|align="right" |812
|align="right" |0.6
|align="right" |513
|align="right" |0.4
|- class="sortbottom"
! style="text-align: left;" |Total
| align="right" |'''9,633,376'''
| align="right" |'''86.0'''
|align="right" |1,228,896
|align="right" |11.0
|align="right" |334,218
|align="right" |3.0
|-
! colspan="7" |
|-
| colspan="7" |Source: National Election Commission<ref>{{Cite web|title=개표현황|url=http://info.nec.go.kr/main/showDocument.xhtml?electionId=0000000000&topMenuId=VC&secondMenuId=VCCP09|access-date=14 April 2021|website=National Election Commission}}</ref>
|}
===Vice president===
With no competition for Rhee in the presidential elections of 1960 after the death of his opponent, the simultaneous vice presidential elections became the main focus of attention. Opposition to Rhee was concentrated around the incumbent [[Democratic Party (South Korea, 1955)|Democratic Party]] candidate, [[Chang Myon]], who had been elected in 1956.<ref name="Han" /> Official results after the election showed a large victory for the Liberal candidate, Lee Ki Poong, with a margin of almost 80% to Chang's 17.5%, entirely against popular expectations, and it was obvious that the results had been extensively manipulated: Han goes so far as to say that "the election results were completely fabricated by police headquarters and the ministry of internal affairs".<ref name="Han" />
The Democratic Party rejected the result and on the same day, protests began in [[Masan]] against the fabrication of the election results. The discovery of the mutilated body of a sixteen-year-old boy who had participated in these protests in early April caused a wave of further protest, and Rhee's obdurate attitude led to the intensification of unrest into the [[April Revolution]],<ref>Han, p. 29.</ref> though Rhee forced Lee to withdraw from active politics.<ref>Han, p. 30.</ref> The results of the elections were nullified after the Revolution's triumph later in the year, though Chang himself resigned on April 23.<ref>Reeve, W. D. (1979) ''The Republic of Korea: A Political and Economic Study.'' Greenwood Press, p.50.</ref>
{{Election results
|cand1=[[Lee Ki-poong]]|party1=[[Liberal Party (South Korea)|Liberal Party]]|votes1=8337059
|cand2=[[Chang Myon]]|party2=[[Democratic Party (South Korea, 1955)|Democratic Party]]|votes2=1843758
|cand3=Kim Jun-yeon|party3=[[Unification Party (South Korea)|Unification Party]]|votes3=249095
|cand4=[[Louise Yim]]|party4=[[National Association (South Korea)|National Association]]|votes4=97533
}}
==== By region ====
{| class="wikitable unsortable" style="text-align:center; font-size: 0.9em;"
! rowspan="3" |Region
! colspan="2" |[[Lee Ki-poong]]
! colspan="2" |[[Chang Myon]]
! colspan="2" |Kim Jun-yeon
! colspan="2" |[[Louise Yim]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="background:{{party color|Liberal Party (South Korea)}};" |
! colspan="2" style="background:{{party color|Democratic Party (South Korea, 1955)}};" |
! colspan="2" style="background:{{party color|Unification Party (South Korea)}};" |
! colspan="2" style="background:{{party color|National Association (South Korea)}};" |
|-
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
!Votes
!%
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Seoul]]
|align="right" |'''509,693'''
|align="right" |'''55.3'''
| align="right" |378,399
| align="right" |41.1
| align="right" |20,154
| align="right" |2.2
| align="right" |12,704
| align="right" |1.4
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Gyeonggi]]
|align="right" |'''955,804'''
|align="right" |'''75.6'''
| align="right" |278,686
| align="right" |22.1
| align="right" |20,372
| align="right" |1.6
| align="right" |8,771
| align="right" |0.7
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Gangwon Province (South Korea)|Gangwon]]
|align="right" |'''786,595'''
|align="right" |'''91.6'''
| align="right" |64,743
| align="right" |7.5
| align="right" |5,468
| align="right" |0.6
| align="right" |1,543
| align="right" |0.2
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[North Chungcheong]]
|align="right" |'''437,883'''
|align="right" |'''78.6'''
| align="right" |98,583
| align="right" |17.7
| align="right" |15,196
| align="right" |2.7
| align="right" |5,165
| align="right" |0.9
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[South Chungcheong]]
|align="right" |'''884,856'''
|align="right" |'''84.7'''
| align="right" |140,567
| align="right" |13.5
| align="right" |12,488
| align="right" |1.2
| align="right" |6,327
| align="right" |0.6
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[North Jeolla]]
|align="right" |'''851,878'''
|align="right" |'''85.5'''
| align="right" |89,846
| align="right" |9.0
| align="right" |32,176
| align="right" |3.2
| align="right" |22,799
| align="right" |2.3
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[South Jeolla]]
|align="right" |'''1,218,247'''
|align="right" |'''83.8'''
| align="right" |140,664
| align="right" |9.7
| align="right" |80,491
| align="right" |5.5
| align="right" |13,612
| align="right" |0.9
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[North Gyeongsang]]
|align="right" |'''1,166.341'''
|align="right" |'''75.5'''
| align="right" |340,214
| align="right" |22.0
| align="right" |27,759
| align="right" |1.8
| align="right" |11,286
| align="right" |0.7
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[South Gyeongsang]]
|align="right" |'''1,398,637'''
|align="right" |'''79.5'''
| align="right" |311,320
| align="right" |17.7
| align="right" |34,869
| align="right" |2.0
| align="right" |15,284
| align="right" |0.9
|-
! style="text-align: left;" |[[Jeju Province|Jeju]]
|align="right" |'''127,125'''
|align="right" |'''99.3'''
| align="right" |736
| align="right" |0.6
| align="right" |122
| align="right" |0.1
| align="right" |42
| align="right" |0.0
|- class="sortbottom"
! style="text-align: left;" |Total
|align="right" |'''8,337,059'''
|align="right" |'''79.2'''
| align="right" |1,843,758
| align="right" |17.5
| align="right" |249,095
| align="right" |2.4
| align="right" |97,533
| align="right" |0.9
|}
==References==
{{reflist}}
{{South Korean elections}}
[[Category:1960 elections in South Korea|President]]
[[Category:Presidential elections in South Korea|1960 1]]
[[Category:Single-candidate elections|1960 1]]
[[Category:Electoral fraud in South Korea]]
[[Category:Annulled elections]]
[[Category:Syngman Rhee]]
[[Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results|1960]]