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Elections in South Korea are held on a national level to select the President and the National Assembly. Local elections are held every four years to elect governors, metropolitan mayors, municipal mayors, and provincial and municipal legislatures.
The president is directly elected for a single five-year term by plurality vote. The National Assembly has 300 members elected for a four-year term, 253 in single-seat constituencies and 47 members by proportional representation. Each individual party willing to represent its policies in the National Assembly is qualified on the legislative (general) election if: i) the national party-vote reaches over 3% on proportional contest or ii) more than 5 members of the party are elected from each of their first-past-the-post election constituencies. [1]
All citizens over the age of 18 have the right to vote. According to Article 34 of the 'Immigration Control Act,' a non-Korean citizen registered in the relevant local constituency and who has had a resident visa for at least three years has the right to vote in local elections. [2]
Office | Methods | Electoral district |
---|---|---|
President of South Korea | first-past-the-post | National |
Member of the National Assembly | first-past-the-post | Constituencies and Party List |
Metropolitan Mayor/Governor | first-past-the-post | Provinces |
Member of the Metropolitan Council | first-past-the-post | Constituencies and Party List |
Superintendent of Education | non-partisan first-past-the-post | Provinces |
Municipal Mayor | first-past-the-post | Municipal divisions |
Member of the Municipal Council | Single non-transferable vote | Constituencies and Party List |
Polling places are usually located in schools. During the absentee or early voting period, voters can vote at any place in the country. On election day, voters may only vote at polling places in their registered constituency. Korean voters mark paper ballots with a rubber stamp using red ink. There is one race per ballot paper; if there are multiple offices up for election, ballot papers are colour-coded and voters are issued one ballot per race. [5]
Korea uses a central count model. After the polls close, ballot boxes are sealed and transported to the constituency's counting centre. Traditionally ballots were hand-counted, and optical scanners have been adopted since 3rd local elections held on 13 June 2002. The scanners resemble cash sorter machines, sorting the ballots into stacks by how they are voted. Stacks are then counted using machines resembling currency counting machines. [6]
Korean elections have been praised as a model of best practice. [5] However, the legality of the introduction of optical scan technology has been challenged and there have been allegations of rigged counting. [6]
Position | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Presidential (March) Local (June) | None | National Assembly (April) | Presidential (June) | Local (June) | None |
President | President | None | President | None | ||
National Assembly | None | All seats | None | |||
Provinces, cities and municipalities | All positions | None | All positions | None |
Position | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Presidential (May) Local (July) | None | National Assembly (May) | Presidential (June) | Local (July) | None |
President | May 10 | None | June 4 | None | None | |
National Assembly | None | May 30 | None | |||
Provinces, cities and municipalities | July 1 | None | July 1 | None |
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Party or alliance | Proportional | Constituency | Total seats | |||||||
Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | |||||
People Power Party / People Future Party | 10,395,264 | 36.67 | 18 | 13,179,769 | 45.08 | 90 | 108 | |||
Democratic Alliance | Democratic Party | 7,567,459 | 26.70 | 8 | 14,758,083 | 50.48 | 161 | 169 | ||
Progressive Party | 2 | 302,925 | 1.04 | 1 | 3 | |||||
New Progressive Alliance [a] | 2 | 14,271 | 0.05 | 0 | 2 | |||||
Independents | 2 | 2 | ||||||||
Total | 14 | 15,075,279 | 51.57 | 162 | 176 | |||||
Rebuilding Korea Party | 6,874,278 | 24.25 | 12 | 12 | ||||||
New Reform Party | 1,025,775 | 3.62 | 2 | 195,147 | 0.67 | 1 | 3 | |||
Liberal Unification Party | 642,433 | 2.27 | 0 | 18,700 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |||
Green–Justice Party | 609,313 | 2.15 | 0 | 107,029 | 0.37 | 0 | 0 | |||
New Future Party | 483,827 | 1.71 | 0 | 200,502 | 0.69 | 1 | 1 | |||
Pine Tree Party | 124,369 | 0.44 | 0 | 18,939 | 0.06 | 0 | 0 | |||
Grand National Party | 72,925 | 0.26 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
National Revolutionary Party | 67,420 | 0.24 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Saenuri Party | 57,210 | 0.20 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Freedom and Democracy Party | 39,977 | 0.14 | 0 | 1,245 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |||
Christian Party | 36,117 | 0.13 | 0 | 218 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |||
Grand National Unity Party | 30,323 | 0.11 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Our Republican Party | 29,895 | 0.11 | 0 | 12,814 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | |||
Great Korea Party | 29,481 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Women's Party | 28,942 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Hashtag People's Policy Party | 26,906 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Labor Party | 25,937 | 0.09 | 0 | 7,465 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | |||
Financial Reform Party | 20,548 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Senior Welfare Party | 15,178 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Republican Party | 14,912 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Hongik Party | 13,326 | 0.05 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Korea Farmers and Fishermen's Party | 13,035 | 0.05 | 0 | 2,804 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | |||
Korea People's Party | 11,947 | 0.04 | 0 | 85 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |||
Mirae Party | 11,505 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
New National Participation Party | 10,242 | 0.04 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
To Tomorrow, to the Future | 9,417 | 0.03 | 0 | 1,333 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |||
Republic of Korea Party | 8,527 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Unification Korea Party | 8,518 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Let's Go Korea | 7,820 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Popular Democratic Party | 7,663 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Gihuminsaeng Party | 6,615 | 0.02 | 0 | 778 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |||
Party for the Abolition of Special Privileges | 4,707 | 0.02 | 0 | 54 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | |||
Korean Wave Union Party | 3,894 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Korea Business Party | 3,783 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
K Political Innovation Union Party | 3,451 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
New Korean Peninsula Party | 1,580 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Korean National Party | 1,917 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
People's Democracy Party | 290 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Independents | 409,761 | 1.40 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
Total | 28,344,519 | 100.00 | 46 | 29,234,129 | 100.00 | 254 | 300 |
Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Lee Jae Myung | Democratic Party | 17,287,513 | 49.42 | |
Kim Moon-soo | People Power Party | 14,395,639 | 41.15 | |
Lee Jun-seok | Reform Party | 2,917,523 | 8.34 | |
Kwon Yeong-guk | Democratic Labor Party | 344,150 | 0.98 | |
Song Jin-ho | Independent | 35,791 | 0.10 | |
Total | 34,980,616 | 100.00 | ||
Valid votes | 34,980,616 | 99.27 | ||
Invalid/blank votes | 255,881 | 0.73 | ||
Total votes | 35,236,497 | 100.00 | ||
Registered voters/turnout | 44,391,871 | 79.38 | ||
Source: National Election Commission |
Vote share by municipalities and provinces (inset) |
Breakdown of votes by region for candidates with at least 1% of the total votes.
Region | Lee Jae Myung | Kim Moon-soo | Lee Jun-seok | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | Votes | % | |
Seoul | 3,105,459 | 47.1 | 2,738,405 | 41.6 | 655,346 | 9.9 |
Busan | 895,213 | 40.1 | 1,146,238 | 51.4 | 168,473 | 7.6 |
Daegu | 379,130 | 23.2 | 1,103,913 | 67.6 | 135,376 | 8.3 |
Incheon | 1,044,295 | 51.7 | 776,952 | 38.4 | 176,739 | 8.7 |
Gwangju | 844,682 | 84.8 | 79,937 | 8.0 | 62,104 | 6.2 |
Daejeon | 470,321 | 48.5 | 393,549 | 40.6 | 94,724 | 9.8 |
Ulsan | 315,820 | 42.5 | 353,180 | 47.6 | 63,177 | 8.5 |
Sejong | 140,620 | 55.6 | 83,965 | 33.2 | 25,004 | 9.9 |
Gyeonggi | 4,821,148 | 52.2 | 3,504,620 | 38.0 | 816,435 | 8.8 |
Gangwon | 449,161 | 44.0 | 483,360 | 47.3 | 78,704 | 7.7 |
North Chungcheong | 501,990 | 47.5 | 457,065 | 43.2 | 86,984 | 8.2 |
South Chungcheong | 661,316 | 47.7 | 600,108 | 43.3 | 111,092 | 8.0 |
North Jeolla | 1,023,272 | 82.7 | 134,996 | 10.9 | 67,961 | 5.5 |
South Jeolla | 1,111,941 | 85.9 | 110,624 | 8.5 | 60,822 | 4.7 |
North Gyeongsang | 442,683 | 25.5 | 1,159,594 | 66.9 | 116,094 | 6.7 |
South Gyeongsang | 851,733 | 39.4 | 1,123,843 | 52.0 | 161,579 | 7.5 |
Jeju | 228,729 | 54.8 | 145,290 | 34.8 | 36,909 | 8.8 |
Total | 17,287,513 | 49.4 | 14,395,639 | 41.2 | 2,917,523 | 8.3 |
Source: National Election Commission |
Breakdown of votes by region for candidates with less than 1% of the total votes.
Region | Kwon Yeong-guk | Song Jin-ho | ||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Votes | % | Votes | % | |||||||||||||||
Seoul | 83,900 | 1.3 | 5,998 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Busan | 18,189 | 0.8 | 2,099 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Daegu | 12,531 | 0.8 | 1,362 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Incheon | 20,743 | 1.0 | 2,098 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Gwangju | 8,767 | 0.9 | 934 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Daejeon | 9,905 | 1.0 | 1,109 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Ulsan | 9,299 | 1.3 | 899 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Sejong | 2,961 | 1.2 | 235 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Gyeonggi | 84,074 | 0.9 | 8,356 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Gangwon | 9,422 | 0.9 | 1,137 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
North Chungcheong | 10,169 | 1.0 | 1,228 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
South Chungcheong | 12,893 | 0.9 | 1,519 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
North Jeolla | 10,061 | 0.8 | 1,719 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
South Jeolla | 9,352 | 0.7 | 2,104 | 0.2 | ||||||||||||||
North Gyeongsang | 13,884 | 0.8 | 1,788 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
South Gyeongsang | 21,809 | 1.0 | 2,678 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Jeju | 6,191 | 1.5 | 528 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Total | 344,150 | 1.0 | 35,791 | 0.1 | ||||||||||||||
Source: National Election Commission |
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All 17 metropolitan mayors and governors All 226 municipal mayors All 824 seats for provincial and metropolitan councillors All 2926 seats for municipal councillors | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 50.9% ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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