Silver-Lined Disappointment

Eight million Koreans--88% of the eligible voters--went to the polls last week to choose a new National Assembly. Campaigning for the 203 seats were 1,216 candidates. Biggest single campaign issue: President Syngman Rhee's bitterly opposed constitutional reform bill, which is designed to trim the Assembly's power, broaden that of the President. To push through the bill Rhee needs a two-thirds Assembly majority, and he had pleaded with voters to give it to him.

While final returns gave Rhee's Liberal Party 116 seats and control of the Assembly, the President's pet constitutional reform program appeared to be permanently bogged down. Of 180 Liberal Party nominees who had received Rhee's personal backing, in exchange for their written pledges to vote for his constitutional amendments, only 99 were victorious.

The result was a real disappointment for Rhee, but had its silver lining: in the light of the heavy opposition vote, Rhee's critics would be hard put to claim that his dictatorial ruthlessness had silenced political opposition in Korea.

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