Elections in South Korea

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]

Voting

Eligibility

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]

Voting methods

Voting methods of South Korea^[3][4]

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

Election technology

South Korean ballots from 2010.

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]

Schedule

Election

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

Inauguration

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

Latest elections

2024 legislative election

Main article: 2024 South Korean legislative election

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 [ko]			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 [ko]			39,977	0.14	0	1,245	0.00	0	0
	Christian Party [ko]			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 [ko]			29,481	0.10	0				0
	Women's Party			28,942	0.10	0				0
	Hashtag People's Policy Party [ko]			26,906	0.09	0				0
	Labor Party			25,937	0.09	0	7,465	0.03	0	0
	Financial Reform Party [ko]			20,548	0.07	0				0
	Senior Welfare Party [ko]			15,178	0.05	0				0
	Republican Party [ko]			14,912	0.05	0				0
	Hongik Party [ko]			13,326	0.05	0				0
	Korea Farmers and Fishermen's Party [ko]			13,035	0.05	0	2,804	0.01	0	0
	Korea People's Party [ko]			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 [ko]			9,417	0.03	0	1,333	0.00	0	0
	Republic of Korea Party [ko]			8,527	0.03	0				0
	Unification Korea Party [ko]			8,518	0.03	0				0
	Let's Go Korea [ko]			7,820	0.03	0				0
	Popular Democratic Party [ko]			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 [ko]			4,707	0.02	0	54	0.00	0	0
	Korean Wave Union Party [ko]			3,894	0.01	0				0
	Korea Business Party [ko]			3,783	0.01	0				0
	K Political Innovation Union Party [ko]			3,451	0.01	0				0
	New Korean Peninsula Party [ko]			1,580	0.01	0				0
	Korean National Party [ko]						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

2022 presidential election

Main article: 2022 South Korean presidential election

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Yoon Suk Yeol	People Power Party	16,394,815	48.56
	Lee Jae-myung	Democratic Party	16,147,738	47.83
	Sim Sang-jung	Justice Party	803,358	2.38
	Huh Kyung-young	National Revolutionary Party	281,481	0.83
	Kim Jae-yeon	Progressive Party	37,366	0.11
	Cho Won-jin	Our Republican Party	25,972	0.08
	Oh Jun-ho	Basic Income Party	18,105	0.05
	Kim Min-chan	Korean Wave Alliance	17,305	0.05
	Lee Gyeong-hee	Korean Unification	11,708	0.03
	Lee Baek-yun	Labor Party	9,176	0.03
	Kim Gyeong-jae	New Liberal Democratic Union	8,317	0.02
	Ok Un-ho	Saenuri Party	4,970	0.01
Total			33,760,311	100.00

2022 local elections

Main article: 2022 South Korean local elections

2022 South Korean local elections

← 2018 1 June 2022 2026 →
All 17 metropolitan mayors and governors All 226 municipal mayors All 824 seats for provincial and metropolitan councillors All 2926 seats for municipal councillors
Turnout	50.9% 9.3 pp
First party Second party   Leader Lee Jun-seok Yun Ho-jung & Park Ji-hyun Party People Power Democratic Regional offices 5 governors 7 met. mayors 4 governors 1 met. mayor Regional offices +/– 4 governors 6 met. mayors 3 governors 6 met. mayors Mayors 145 63 Mayors +/– 92 88 Councillors 540 (P) 1,435 (M) 322 (P) 1,384 (M) Councillors +/– 403 (P) 426 (M) 330 (P) 255 (M)   Third party Fourth party   Leader Kim Jae-yeon Yeo Yeong-gug Party Progressive Justice Regional offices 0 governor 0 met. mayor 0 governor 0 met. mayor Regional offices +/– 0 0 Mayors 1 0 Mayors +/– 1 0 Councillors 3 (P) 17 (M) 2 (P) 7 (M) Councillors +/– 3 (P) 6 (M) 9 (P) 19 (M)
Gubernatorial & metropolitan mayoral elections: overall results and turnouts Gubernatorial & metropolitan mayoral elections: municipal-level breakdown

Summary of past elections

Presidential elections

Main article: South Korean presidential elections § Summary of past presidential elections

Legislative elections

Main article: Legislative elections in South Korea § Summary of past legislative elections

Local elections

• 2010 South Korean local elections
• 2014 South Korean local elections
• 2018 South Korean local elections
• 2022 South Korean local elections

See also

• History of South Korea
• Constitution of South Korea
• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system
• Artificial intelligence and elections

Notes

1. Alliance of the Basic Income Party, the Social Democratic Party and the Open Democratic Party