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.

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.

Voting methods

Voting methods of South Korea

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.

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.

Korean elections have been praised as a model of best practice. However, the legality of the introduction of optical scan technology has been challenged and there have been allegations of rigged counting.

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			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

2025 presidential election

Main article: 2025 South Korean presidential election

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

By region

Vote share by municipalities and provinces (inset)

Major candidates

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

Minor candidates

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

2022 local elections

Main article: 2022 South Korean local elections

2022 South Korean local elections

1 June 2022
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)

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

Further reading

• Nahm, A.C. (1996). Korea: A history of the Korean people (rev. ed.). Seoul: Hollym. ISBN 978-1-56591-070-6.
• Lee, Il-cheong (이일청) (1993). 인명국사대사전 (Inmyeong guksa daesajeon, Unabridged biographical dictionary of Korean history. Seoul: Goryeo Munhaksa.
• Lee, Ki-baik (1984). A new history of Korea (rev ed.). Seoul: Ilchokak. ISBN 978-89-337-0204-8.

External links

• National Election Commission of South Korea

• Overview of candidates, parties and outcomes of South Korean elections since 1952 (with minor flaws like 이시영 missing in the 1952 page and wrong year of Park's resignation in the 1960 page)