2002 South Korean presidential election

2002 South Korean presidential election

←  1997 19 December 2002 2007  →
Turnout	70.83% ( 9.82pp)
Nominee Roh Moo-hyun Lee Hoi-chang Party Millennium Democratic Grand National Popular vote 12,014,277 11,443,297 Percentage 48.91% 46.59%
Results by municipal-level divisions Results by provincial-level divisions
President before election Kim Dae-jung Independent Elected President Roh Moo-hyun Millennium Democratic

Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2002. The result was a victory for Roh Moo-Hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, who defeated Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party by just over half a million votes. ^[1]

Background

President Kim Dae-jung's National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) re-branded itself to Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) in 2000, but was struggling as it had defeated by the Grand National Party (GNP) both the 2000 parliamentary election and 2002 gubernatorial elections. GNP's then leader and probable presidential nominee Lee Hoi-chang was polling higher than any MDP candidates.

Primaries

Millennium Democratic Party

For the first time in South Korean history, the Democratic Party nominated its presidential candidate through open primaries.

At the beginning of the primaries, Rhee In-je, the 3-term congressman who ran against President Kim Dae-jung in 1997 but afterwards joined the ruling party, led the other candidates by a considerable margin in every poll. However, fringe candidate Roh Moo-hyun rose to prominence after winning the Gwangju contest, eventually winning his party's nomination and then the presidential election.

Candidates

• Roh Moo-hyun, former Member of National Assembly from Busan
• Lee In-je, former Governor of Gyeonggi
• Chung Dong-young, Member of National Assembly from North Jeolla
• Kim Joong-kwon, former Member of National Assembly from North Gyeongsang
• Han Hwa-gap, former Member of National Assembly from South Jeolla
• Yu Jong-geun, Governor of North Jeolla
• Kim Geun-tae, Member of National Assembly from Seoul

Results

Contest	Roh Moo-hyun		Chung Dong-young		Lee In-je		Kim Joong-kwon		Han Hwa-gap		Yu Jong-geun		Kim Geun-tae
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
Jeju 9 March	125	18.6	110	16.4	172	25.6	55	8.2	175	26.1	18	2.7	16	2.4
Ulsan 10 March	298	29.4	65	6.4	222	21.9	281	27.8	116	11.5	20	2.0	10	1.0
Gwangju 16 March	595	37.9	54	3.4	491	31.3	148	9.4	280	17.9	–	–	–	–
Daejeon 17 March	219	16.5	54	4.1	894	67.5	81	6.1	77	5.8	–	–	–	–
South Chungcheong 23 March	277	14.2	39	2.0	1,432	73.7	196	10.1	–	–	–	–	–	–
Gangwon 24 March	630	42.5	71	4.8	623	42.0	159	10.7	–	–	–	–	–	–
South Gyeongsang 30 March	1,713	72.2	191	8.1	468	19.7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
North Jeolla 31 March	756	34.3	738	33.5	710	32.2	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Daegu 5 April	1,137	62.3	181	9.9	506	27.7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Incheon 6 April	1,022	51.9	131	6.7	816	41.4	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
North Gyeongsang 7 April	1,246	59.4	183	8.7	668	31.9	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
North Chungcheong 13 April	387	32.1	83	6.9	734	61.0	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
South Jeolla 14 April	1,297	62.0	340	16.3	454	21.7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Busan 20 April	1,328	62.5	796	37.5	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Gyeonggi 21 April	1,191	45.5	1,426	54.5	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Internet voting 26 April	1,423	81.3	327	18.7	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Seoul 27 April	3,924	66.5	1,978	33.5	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Total	17,577	72.2	6,767	27.8	Withdrew		Withdrew		Withdrew		Withdrew		Withdrew

Grand National Party

Candidates

• Lee Hoi-chang, former Prime Minister
• Choi Byung-ryul, Member of the National Assembly from Seoul
• Lee Bu-young, Member of the National Assembly from Seoul
• Lee Sang-hee, former Minister of Science and Technology ^[2]

Results

Contest	Lee Hoi-chang		Choi Byung-ryul		Lee Bu-young		Lee Sang-hee
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
Incheon 13 April	1,111	79.3	79	5.6	201	14.3	10	0.7
Ulsan 18 April	446	59.0	206	27.2	73	9.7	31	4.1
Jeju 20 April	361	73.4	65	13.2	48	12.1	18	2.2
Gangwon 23 April	891	80.5	101	9.1	71	6.4	44	4.0
North Gyeongsang and Daegu 24 April	3,143	83.7	427	11.4	133	3.5	54	1.4
North Jeolla 27 April	505	54.2	117	12.6	278	29.9	31	3.3
South Gyeongsang and Busan 28 April	2,895	70.1	934	22.6	197	4.8	103	2.5
South Chungcheong and Daejeon 30 April	1,643	83.6	153	7.8	124	6.3	45	2.3
South Jeolla and Gwangju 2 May	1,112	54.0	368	17.9	512	24.9	67	3.3
Gyeonggi 4 May	2,461	71.3	424	12.3	486	14.1	81	2.3
North Chungcheong 7 May	592	72.3	152	18.6	60	7.3	15	1.8
Seoul 9 May	2,321	47.9	1,668	34.5	743	15.3	109	2.3
Total	17,481	69.0	4,694	18.3	2,926	11.4	608	2.4

Democratic Labor Party

Labor activist Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party was nominated for president. ^[3]

Candidate	Votes	%
Kwon Young-ghil	7,297	90.85
Against	735	9.15
Total	8,032	100.00
Registered voters/turnout	12,877	–

Campaign

Although corruption scandals marred the incumbent government, Lee Hoi-chang's campaign suffered from the wave of Anti-American sentiment in Korea generated by the Yangju highway incident. Public opinion of Lee, who was widely seen as being both pro-U.S. and the preferred candidate of the George W. Bush administration in Washington, D.C., suffered. After losing to Roh by 2% in the December 2002 elections, Lee subsequently announced his retirement from politics. ^[4]

Roh-Chung coalition

Chung Mong-joon, the 3-term independent congressman from Ulsan and son of Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, became so popular that he began appearing on polls for presidential election after he, as the president of the Korean Football Association, was credited for winning the right to host 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea. ^[5]

Chung officially launched his presidential campaign in September, and in many polls beat Roh and came close to beating Lee. Many Democratic politicians that weren't happy with Roh's nomination joined Chung's campaign. However, when it seemed clear that if both Roh and Chung ran, Lee would win easily. The two sides decided to combine forces, instead of competing against each other.

The two sides agreed on conducting two polls, each by different polling companies, where the winner would run as the unified candidate. The winner had to win both polls, or a second round had to occur.

So the two poll was conducted on 24 November, but only one validated. The other one was invalidated, as the two sides had agreed that any poll with Lee Hoi-chang polling less than 30.4% must be invalidated, since there could be a chance that Lee's supporters were attempting to manipulate the results by responding with an untrue answer.

The only poll that was validated was the one conducted by the Research and Research, and it was won by Roh.

Consequently, Chung withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Roh. ^[6]

24 November 2002

Candidate	Research and Research Poll	# of polls won
Roh	46.8%	1
Chung	42.2%	0
Lee	32.1%	-

However, Chung later broke his pledge on the night before the election, when he felt that Roh broke the promise to include Chung in for policy decisions and surrounded himself only with Democrats. ^[7] Chung announced less than eight hours before the election that he was withdrawing his support for Roh and urged people to vote their conscience, but Roh won anyway.

Results

Result by municipalities

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Roh Moo-hyun	Millennium Democratic Party	12,014,277	48.91
	Lee Hoi-chang	Grand National Party	11,443,297	46.59
	Kwon Young-ghil	Democratic Labor Party	957,148	3.90
	Lee Han-dong	One National People Unite  [ ko ]	74,027	0.30
	Kim Gil-soo  [ ko ]	Fatherland Defenders Party  [ ko ]	51,104	0.21
	Kim Yeong-gyu  [ ko ]	Socialist Party	22,063	0.09
	Jang Se-dong  [ ko ]	Independent
Total			24,561,916	100.00
Valid votes			24,561,916	99.10
Invalid/blank votes			223,047	0.90
Total votes			24,784,963	100.00
Registered voters/turnout			34,991,529	70.83

By region

Major candidates

Breakdown of votes by region for candidates with at least 1% of the total votes.

Region	Roh Moo-hyun		Lee Hoi-chang		Kwon Young-ghil
	Votes	%	Votes	%	Votes	%
Seoul	2,792,957	51.3	2,447,376	45.0	179,790	3.3
Busan	587,946	29.9	1,314,274	66.8	61,281	3.1
Daegu	240,745	18.7	1,002,164	77.8	42,174	3.3
Incheon	611,766	49.8	547,205	44.6	61,655	5.0
Gwangju	715,182	95.2	26,869	3.6	7,243	1.0
Daejeon	369,046	55.1	266,760	39.8	29,728	4.4
Ulsan	178,584	35.3	267,737	52.9	57,786	11.4
Gyeonggi	2,430,193	50.7	2,120,191	44.2	209,346	4.4
Gangwon	316,722	41.5	400,405	52.5	38,722	5.1
North Chungcheong	365,623	50.4	311,044	42.9	41,731	5.8
South Chungcheong	474,531	52.2	375,110	41.2	49,579	5.5
North Jeolla	966,053	91.6	65,334	6.2	14,904	1.4
South Jeolla	1,070,506	93.4	53,074	4.6	12,215	1.1
North Gyeongsang	311,358	21.7	1,056,446	73.5	62,522	4.4
South Gyeongsang	434,642	27.1	1,083,564	67.5	79,853	5.0
Jeju	148,423	56.1	105,744	39.6	8,619	3.3
Total	12,014,277	48.9	11,443,297	46.6	957,148	3.9
Source: National Election Commission

Minor candidates

Breakdown of votes by region for candidates with less than 1% of the total votes.

Region	Lee Han-dong	Kim Gil-soo	Kim Yeong-gyu
Seoul	12,724	6,437	4,706
Busan	2,148	2,064	1,380
Daegu	1,699	1,317	810
Incheon	3,600	1,978	1,612
Gwangju	803	1,014	305
Daejeon	1,157	1,408	747
Ulsan	997	716	502
Gyeonggi	26,072	8,085	4,119
Gangwon	3,406	2,713	969
North Chungcheong	3,205	2,610	949
South Chungcheong	4,973	4,322	1,303
North Jeolla	2,505	5,187	817
South Jeolla	2,830	6,707	988
North Gyeongsang	3,332	2,936	1,344
South Gyeongsang	2,832	2,629	1,224
Jeju	744	981	288
Total	74,027	51,104	22,063
Source: National Election Commission

References

1. "IFES Election Guide | Elections: South Korea Presidential Dec 19 2002". www.electionguide.org. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
2. "donga.com[정치:한나라당 경선]". The Dong-a Ilbo . Archived from the original on 2011-02-14. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
3. ""세상 바꾸려 대통령 후보 나섰다'20억 기탁금' 목숨 걸고 싸울터"". OhmyNews . 2002-09-09. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
4. Cossa, Ralph A. (December 2012). "U.S.-Korea Relations: Trials, Tribulations, Threats, Tirades" (PDF). Comparative Connections—An E-Journal on East Asian Bilateral Relations. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
5. "[여론조사 자료실]민주 통합신당 대선후보 선호도 鄭42.1%-盧29.5%". The Dong-a Ilbo (in Korean). 2002-09-08. Archived from the original on 2018-04-21. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
6. nozzang (2008-06-13), 노무현 단일후보 확정 그 숨막히던 현장 , retrieved 2018-04-20^{[ dead YouTube link ]}
7. "정몽준, 자서전서 "노무현 전 대통령 지지 철회 이유는…"" (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-20.