Dalseong (constituency)

Dalseong (Korean: 달성군) is a constituency of the National Assembly of South Korea. The constituency consists of Dalseong County, Daegu. As of 2024, 214,642 eligible voters were registered in the constituency. The constituency was created in 1996 from the Dalseong–Goryeong constituency.

History
Dalseong, like all other constituencies located in the Daegu–Gyeongbuk region is widely considered a stronghold for the conservative People Power Party. Accordingly, Dalseong has always elected members of conservative political parties to represent the constituency in the National Assembly. The constituency has been represented by floor leader of People Power Party Choo Kyung-ho since 2016.

Former SsangYong Group CEO Kim Suk-won of the conservative New Korea Party was the first member to represent the constituency having won with 62.71% of the vote in the 1996 legislative election. However Kim resigned two years later in 1998 in order to return to the SsangYong Group as CEO. A by-election was held in 1998 between Park Geun-hye of the conservative Grand National Party and Eom Sam-tak of the centrist-liberal National Congress for New Politics, which saw Park win with 62.5% of the vote. Park won re-election in 2000 with 61.39% of the vote, once again defeating Eom Sam-tak of the Millennium Democratic Party. In the following election, Park won in a landslide with 70.03% of the vote. Park won re-election with a record 88.57% of the vote in 2008, receiving the second highest share of votes in the election. Park did not run for re-election in 2012, having previously taken over as acting leader of the Grand National Party in December 2011 via a party emergency committee. Former Dalseong County Mayor Lee Jong-jin succeeded Park, having garnered 55.63% of the vote. Ahead of the 2016 election, Lee announced that he would not stand for re-election. He was succeeded by Choo Kyung-ho, who had served as Deputy Minister of Economy and Finance and the Chairman of the Office for Government Policy Coordination under President Park Geun-hye. Choo won re-election to the seat in 2020 and 2024, with 67.33% and 75.31% of the vote respectively. Choo was the only member of the ruling People Power Party to receive more than 100,000 votes in the 2024 legislative election.

Boundaries
The constituency encompass the entirety of Dalseong County which includes the towns of Hwawon-eup, Nongong-eup, Dasa-eup, Yuga-eup, Okpo-eup, Hyeonpung-eup, and the townships of Gachang-myeon, Habin-myeon, and Guji-myeon. It borders the constituencies of Dalseo B, Jung–Nam, and Suseong B to the north, Goryeong–Seongju–Chilgok to the west, Miryang–Uiryeong–Haman–Changnyeong and Yeongcheon–Cheondo to the south, and Gyeongsan to the east.