1980 South Korean presidential election

← 1979 27 August 1980 1981 →
2,540 members of the National Conference for Unification 1,271 votes needed to win
Nominee Chun Doo-hwan Party Independent Electoral vote 2,524
Votes of the National Conference for Unification   Chun Doo-hwan: 2524   Invalid/blank: 1   Did not vote: 15
President before election Park Choong-hoon (acting) Independent Elected President Chun Doo-hwan Independent

Indirect presidential elections were held in South Korea on 27 August 1980 to fill the vacancy caused by President Choi Kyu-hah's resignation.

Under the 1972 Yushin Constitution, the president was elected by the National Conference for Unification, whose 2,540 members had been elected for a six-year term of office in December 1978. General Chun Doo-hwan was the only candidate, and was elected unopposed.^[1]

Chun was to serve for the remainder of the 1978–1984 term of longtime president Park Chung-hee, who had died in 1979 and been replaced by Choi. However, Chun subsequently decided to stage a coup and end the Fourth Republic and draft a new constitution, which was promulgated in October 1980 after being approved in a referendum. The first presidential election under the new constitution was held in February 1981, and Chun was elected by an overwhelming majority under controversial circumstances.^[2]

After the assassination of the military dictator President Park Chung-hee in October 1979, Prime Minister Choi Kyu-hah was elected president in the December 1979 elections. However, General Chun Doo-hwan staged the Coup d'état of December Twelfth and effectively took control of the government, making President Choi a figurehead. However, on 16 August 1980, following the Coup d'état of May Seventeenth, Chun removed Choi from office so he could become president himself.

In order to be elected, a candidate had to receive the vote of over 50% of the incumbent members of the National Conference for Unification. With 2,540 delegates present, Chun had to receive at least 1,271 votes to be elected. He received 2,524 votes, 99.37% of the total possible.