Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party shakes hands with a supporter after clinching a victory in the general elections, Thursday. The 39-year-old won his first-ever Assembly seat after three consecutive losses. Joint Press Corps

The numbers of lawmakers who are rookies or women selected through Wednesday's general elections for the 22nd National Assembly came to 132 and 56, respectively, representing decreases of 6.3 percentage points and 0.4 percentage points, respectively, compared to the previous polls conducted four years ago, the election watchdog said Thursday.

Up for grabs were 300 seats, including 254 directly contested seats and 46 proportional representative slots allocated to parties according to the proportion of votes for them.

According to the National Election Commission (NEC), a total of 132 newly elected first-term lawmakers will join the 22nd Assembly on May 30, down from 151 in the 21st Assembly.

The number of political novices who won directly contested seats was tallied at 89, and the figure rose to 132 when those securing proportional representative slots were added.

The new first-term lawmakers in total accounted for 44 percent of the 300-member Assembly, down from 50.3 percent the last time.

By gender, the number of women in the 22nd Assembly came to 56, or 18.6 percent, down from 57, or 19 percent, from the previous polls.

The figure is far behind the world average of 25.6 percent, according to data announced by the Inter-Parliamentary Union in 2021.

Thirty-five women won directly contested seats. The figure reached a record high but is still markedly small compared to 219 men winning such seats.

Of the 46 proportional representative slots, 21 were filled by women.

Meanwhile, the number of successful candidates aged 40 or younger came to 44, up from 41 in the previous Assembly.

Of the 254 directly contested seats, 32 went to those aged 40 or younger. Of them, 10 were aged 30 or younger.

The average age of all entire successful candidates who won directly contested seats was 56.7, meaning that the political scene still has high entry barriers for young people.