| |||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 70.83% (9.82pp) | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||||||||
|
This article is part of a series on |
South Koreaportal |
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]
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.
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.
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 |
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 |
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 | – |
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]
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]
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.
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 | 74,027 | 0.30 | |
Kim Gil-soo | Fatherland Defenders Party | 51,104 | 0.21 | |
Kim Yeong-gyu | Socialist Party | 22,063 | 0.09 | |
Jang Se-dong | 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 |
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 |
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 |
Kim Dae-jung was a South Korean politician and activist who served as the 8th president of South Korea from 1998 to 2003.
The Democratic Party was a political party in South Korea. Formerly named Millennium Democratic Party, it was renamed on 6 May 2005. After its dissolution, its members joined the Uri Party or the successor Democratic Party.
Chung Dong-young is a politician and was the United New Democratic Party nominee for President of South Korea in 2007.
Lee Hoi-chang is a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the 26th Prime Minister of South Korea from 1993 to 1994. He was a presidential candidate in the 15th, 16th and 17th presidential elections of South Korea. Prior to his presidential campaigns, Lee served as Supreme Court Justice of the Supreme Court of Korea.
Chung Mong-joon or Chung Mong Joon is a South Korean businessman and politician. He is the sixth son of Chung Ju-yung, founder of Hyundai, the second-largest South Korean chaebol before its breakup in 2003. He remains the controlling shareholder of a Hyundai offshoot, Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, parent of the world's largest shipbuilding company. He is also the chairman of the board of the University of Ulsan and Ulsan College in Ulsan, South Korea. He is the founder and the honorary chairman of The Asan Institute for Policy Studies. He was vicepresident of FIFA and president of the South Korean football association.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2007. The election was won by Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, returning conservatives to the Blue House for the first time in ten years. Lee defeated Grand Unified Democratic New Party nominee Chung Dong-young and independent Lee Hoi-chang by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, the largest since direct elections were reintroduced in 1987. It also marked the first time a president-elect in Korea was under investigation by a prosecutor. Voter turnout was 63.0%, an all-time low according to the National Election Commission.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 18 December 1997. The result was a victory for opposition candidate Kim Dae-jung, who won with 40.3 percent of the vote. When he took office in 1998, it marked the first time in Korean history that the ruling party peacefully transferred power to the opposition party.
Legislative elections were held in South Korea on April 9, 2008. The conservative Grand National Party won 153 of 299 seats while the main opposition United Democratic Party won 81 seats. This election marked the lowest-ever voter turnout of 46%.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 18 December 1992, the second democratic presidential elections since the end of military rule in 1987. Voter turnout was 81.9%.
Roh Moo-hyun was a South Korean politician and lawyer who served as the ninth president of South Korea between 2003 and 2008.
The People's Participation Party was a political party of South Korea. It was formed by many of the former members of the Uri Party after the death of former President Roh Moo-hyun. Rhyu Si-min was elected as Party Chairman on March 19, 2011. In March 2011 it had 45,335 members. For the April 27 by-elections, the People's Participation Party has cooperated with the Democratic Party to enter Lee Bong-su as the single opposition candidate for the Kimhae seat in the National Assembly of South Korea. On 5 December 2011, it merged into the Unified Progressive Party.
The Lee Myung-bak government was the fifth government of the Sixth Republic of South Korea. It took office on 25 February 2008 after Lee Myung-bak's victory in the 2007 presidential elections. Most of the new cabinet was approved by the National Assembly on 29 February. Led by President Lee Myung-bak, it was supported principally by the conservative Saenuri Party, previously known as the Grand National Party. It was also known as Silyong Jeongbu, the "pragmatic government", a name deriving from Lee's campaign slogan.
Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2012. They were the sixth presidential elections since democratization and the establishment of the Sixth Republic, and were held under a first-past-the-post system, in which there was a single round of voting and the candidate receiving the highest number of votes was elected. Under the South Korean constitution, a president is restricted to a single five-year term in office. The term of the then incumbent president Lee Myung-bak ended on 24 February 2013. According to the Korea Times, 30.7 million people voted with turnout at 75.8%. Park Geun-hye of the Saenuri party was elected the first female South Korean president with 51.6% of the vote opposed to 48.0% for her opponent Moon Jae-in. Park's share of the vote was the highest won by any candidate since the beginning of free and fair direct elections in 1987 and the first such election in which any candidate won a majority. Moreover, as of the 2022 election, this is the latest South Korean presidential election in which the winning candidate won an absolute majority of the vote.
Kim Doo-kwan is a South Korean Democratic Party politician, former civil servant, and former governor of South Gyeongsang Province. He was elected governor in the 2010 local elections as an independent after two previous unsuccessful attempts. He served as Minister for Home Affairs under the administration of Roh Moo-hyun, and at one point was seen as a potential contender for the DUP nomination in the 2012 presidential election.
Lee In-je is a South Korean politician and a former judge.
Lee Ki-taek was a South Korean politician and parliamentarian.
The Democratic Party was a political party of South Korea from 1995 to 1997. Formerly named United Democratic Party, it was renamed in 1996.
Jeon Hae-cheol is a South Korean lawyer and politician who served as the Minister of the Interior and Safety from 2020 to 2022. He formerly served as the Senior Secretary to the President for Civil Affairs from 2006 to 2007, under the then President Roh Moo-hyun.
Woo Sang-ho is a South Korean activist and politician who served as the interim President of the Democratic Party from 7 June 2022 to 29 August 2022. He previously served as the parliamentary leader of the party from 2016 to 2017. He has been the Member of the National Assembly for Seodaemun A constituency from 2004 to 2008, and since 2012.
Kim Young-bae is a South Korean activist and politician served as the former Mayor of Seongbuk from 2010 to 2018. On 15 April 2020, he was elected the Member of the National Assembly for Seongbuk 1st constituency.