An early presidential election was held in South Korea on 9 May 2017. The elections were conducted in a single round, on a first-past-the-post basis. Originally scheduled for 20 December 2017, the election was pushed forward following the impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye on 10 March. This is due to a requirement by the constitution of South Korea for an election to be held within 60 days of a permanent presidential vacancy, which in this case was caused by the 10 March decision of the Constitutional Court of Korea to uphold the impeachment and remove Park from office. Later, it was confirmed by the government that the date of the election would be 9 May, making them the first snap presidential elections held directly. Following procedures set out in the Constitution of South Korea, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn succeeded Park as the acting president. After Park was removed from office by the Constitutional Court's ruling, acting president Hwang announced he would not run for a term in his own right.
Opinion polling before April consistently placed the Democratic Party's candidate, Moon Jae-in, runner-up in the 2012 election, as the front-runner. Second place in the opinion polls was initially held by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who declined to run in February, followed by Ahn Hee-jung, whilst he lost the Democratic primaries to Moon. Support for People Party founder Ahn Cheol-soo then surged, threatening Moon's lead in the polls throughout early April, before descending to approximately equal that of Liberty Korea Party's candidate, Hong Joon-pyo, in final polls.
Moon won the election with 41 percent of the vote, defeating his nearest opponent, Hong, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Under the Constitution of South Korea, if a president dies, resigns, or is removed by impeachment, a new election must take place within 60 days. As a result, unlike previous presidential elections, president-elect Moon took office immediately upon the confirmation of the result by the National Election Commission, with the inauguration at the National Assembly on the same day.
Background
Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party (renamed just prior to the election in February 2017 as the Liberty Korea Party) won the previous presidential election in 2012, succeeding Lee Myung-bak of the same party.
The Saenuri Party lost the parliamentary election in April 2016, with opposition parties including liberal Democratic Party and People Party winning a majority in the National Assembly. Commentators described the result as leaving Park a lame duck president, as South Korean presidents are barred from reelection. and the Nikkei Asian Review noted that, in the wake of her "crushing defeat", "rivals sense a prime opportunity to complete the power shift in the December 2017 presidential vote". The Korea Times stated: "The drama of deals and power struggles for next year's election has already begun."
Impeachment of President Park Geun-hye
On 9 December 2016, President Park was impeached by the National Assembly by a vote of 234 for and 56 against (with seven invalid votes and two abstentions) after her implication in the 2016 South Korean political scandal. The Constitutional Court reviewed the motion of impeachment. Per the Constitution, Park's powers were suspended until the Constitutional Court could review the case, and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn became acting president.
The Constitutional Court had 180 days to decide whether to uphold the impeachment. On 10 March 2017, Park was formally removed from office, with a unanimous ruling by all eight of the Constitutional Court's justices supporting her impeachment. A presidential election would have to be held within 60 days. In the interim, Prime Minister Hwang served out the remainder of the 18th term until election day.
The presidential election had previously been scheduled for 20 December, with Park barred from running due to the constitutional ban on any sort of presidential reelection. However, with Park's removal from office, the elections were brought forward to 9 May in order to ensure that a new president would be able to take office within 60 days of Park's removal, as required by the Constitution.
Registered candidates
The six parties represented in the National Assembly are the social liberal Democratic Party, the conservative Liberty Korea Party, the centrist People Party, the center-right Bareun Party, the progressive Justice Party, and pro-Park Geun-hye conservative Saenuri Party.
Ballot numbers for party candidates were given according to the candidate's party seat distribution in the National Assembly. Ballot numbers for independent and minor party candidates were determined through a random lottery by the National Election Commission.
A record number of 15 candidates registered, out of which two withdrew before election day. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 (withdrew) 12 13 (withdrew) 14 15 MoonJae-in HongJun-pyo AhnCheol-soo YooSeung-min SimSang-jung ChoWon-jin OhYoung-guk ChangSŏng-min LeeJae-ohKim Seon-dong NamJae-jun LeeKyung-hee KimJung-son YoonHong-sik KimMin-chan Democratic Liberty Korea People's Bareun Justice Saenuri Economic Patriots Grand National United Evergreen Korea People's United United Korea Korean Nationalist Future Korea Peninsula Hongik Independent
Nominations Democratic Party Candidate Democratic Party candidate Leader of theDemocratic Party
Primary Candidates were determined by an open primary of citizens who registered as a voter between February 15 to March 9, and March 12 to March 21. Overall, 2,144,840 people registered as a primary voter, making the 2017 primary the largest in Korean history.
The primary was conducted from March 22 to April 3, with the voting base divided by four regions: Honam, Yeongnam, Hoseo and Seoul Capital Area, Gangwon Province, and Jeju Province as a single region. 71.6% of the registered voters voted in the primary, putting the vote total at 1,642,640.
Candidates were: Moon Jae-in, former party chairman (2015–2016), member of the National Assembly for Busan Sasang (2012–2016), 2012 Democratic United Party presidential nominee Ahn Hee-jung, Governor of South Chungcheong (2010–present) Choi Sung, Mayor of Goyang (2010–present), former member of the National Assembly for Goyang Deogyang B(2004–2008) Lee Jae Myung, Mayor of Seongnam (2010–present)
+ Polling firm/Link Fieldwork date Samplesize Lee Jae Myung Moon Jae-in Ahn Hee-jung Kim Boo-kyum Park Won-soon Kim Jong-in Choi Sung Realmeter 17.03.10 21.9%52.7% 22.5% – – – 0.4% R&Search 17.02.27–17.02.28 15.5%38.0% 29.8% – – – 0.2% Korea Research 17.02.05–17.02.06 8.8%36.9% 26.2% 2.4% – – – Realmeter 17.02.01 13.9%31.4% 23.7% 4.1% – 3.7% 0.5%Realmeter 17.01.16–17.01.17 1,004 13.5%32.8% 10.8% 5.6% 5.3% 5% 1.1%
Results Candidate Place Votes Percentage Moon Jae-in 936,419 57.0% Ahn Hee-jung 2nd 353,631 21.5% Lee Jae Myung 3rd 347,647 21.2% Choi Sung 4th 4,943 0.3% 1,642,677 100%
Liberty Korea Party Candidate Liberty Korea Party candidate Governor ofSouth Gyeongsang Province
Primary Candidate was determined by a combination of opinion polls, conducted between March 30 to March 31 (50%), and the votes cast by the delegates at the party convention held on March 31 (50%). Candidates were: Lee In-je, member of the National Assembly until 2016, former Minister of Labour, former Governor of Gyeonggi and 1997 presidential candidate Hong Joon-pyo, member of the National Assembly until 2012, incumbent Governor of South Gyeongsang (2012–present) Kim Kwan-yong, incumbent Governor of North Gyeongsang (2006–present), former Mayor of Gumi (1995–2006) Kim Jin-tae, member of the National Assembly for Chuncheon (2012–present)
Results Candidate Place Opinion Polls Delegate Votes Aggregated Result Hong Joon-pyo 46.7% 62.9% 54.15% Kim Jin-tae 2nd 17.5% 21.1% 19.30% Lee In-je 3rd 24.6% 5.1% 14.85% Kim Kwan-yong 4th 11.2% 12.2% 11.70% 100% 100% 100%
People's Party Candidate People's Party candidate Leader of thePeople Party
Primary
Candidate was chosen by an open primary (80%) and an opinion poll conducted between April 4 and 5 (20%). The primary was conducted through March 25 to April 4, with 7 regional primaries being held. Ahn Cheol-soo was declared winner of the primary on April 4. The candidate were: Ahn Cheol-soo, former party co-chairman (2016), former co-chairman of the New Politics Alliance for Democracy (March–July 2014), withdrawn presidential candidate in 2012, founder of AhnLab, Inc., member of the National Assembly for Nowon C (2013–present) Sohn Hak-kyu, former member of the National Assembly for Seongnam Bundang B(2011–2012), former Governor of Gyeonggi (2002–06), former assemblyman for Gwangmyeong·Gwangmyeong B(1993–1998, 2000–2002) Park Joo-sun, deputy speaker of the National Assembly (2016–present), member of the National Assembly (2000–2004, 2008–present)
Results Candidate Place Votes Percentage Ahn Cheol-soo 133,927 72.71% Sohn Hak-kyu 2nd 35,696 19.38% Park Joo-sun 3rd 14,561 6.92% 184,768 100%
Bareun Party Candidate Bareun Party candidate Member of theNational Assembly
Primary Candidate was determined by a combination of votes from an evaluation commission based on 4 debates, held in different region of the country (40%), votes from the party members (30%), and public opinion polls (30%). Candidates were: Yoo Seong-min, member of the National Assembly for Daegu (2004–present) Nam Kyung-pil, incumbent governor of Gyeonggi Province (2014–present)
Yoo Seong-min was nominated as the candidate of Baerun Party on March 28.
Results Candidate Place Votes Percentage Yoo Seung-min 36,593 62.9% Nam Kyung-pil 2nd 21,625 37.1% 58,218 100%
Justice Party Candidate Justice Party candidate Leader of theJustice Party
Primary Candidates were determined by a closed voting of the party members. Candidates were: Sim Sang-jung, Chairperson of the Justice Party (2015–present), member of the National Assembly for Goyang (2004– 2008, 2012–present) Kang Sang-goo, vice president of the Justice Party education institute
Sim Sang-jung was nominated as the candidate of the Justice Party on February 16.
Results Candidate Place Votes Percentage Sim Sang-jung Nominated 8,209 80.7% Kang Sang-goo 2nd 1,962 19.3% 10,239 100%
Other Nominations Cho Won-jin (Saenuri Party) Member of the National Assembly (2008–2020) Oh Young-guk (Economic Patriots Party) CEO of Haha Group Jang Sung-min (Grand National Unity Party) Media pundit and Member of the National Assembly (2000–2004) Lee Jae-oh (Evergreen Korea Party) Member of the National Assembly (1996–2008, 2010–2016) Kim Sun-dong (People's United Party) Member of the National Assembly (2011–2014) Nam Jae-jun (United Korea Party) Former Director of the NIS (2013–2014) Lee Kyung-hee (Korea Nationalist Party) Entrepreneur and Co-leader of the Korean Nationalist Party Kim Jung-sun (Future Korean Peninsula) Leader of the Future Korean Peninsula Party Yoon Hong-sik (Hongik Party) YouTuber and Leader of the Hongik Party Kim Min-chan (Independent) Chairman of the World Masters Committee
Notable non-candidates Hwang Kyo-ahn, acting President (2016–2017), Prime Minister (2015–2017), former Minister of Justice (2013–15) announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 15 March 2017. Kim Boo-kyum, member of the National Assembly for Daegu (2016–present), former member for Gunpo (2000–12), announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 7 February 2017. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007–2016), was considering running as a non-partisan candidate but announced on 1 February 2017 that he would not be running for the presidency. Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul (2011–present), announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 26 January 2017. Oh Se-hoon, former Mayor of Seoul (2006–2011), announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 13 January 2017.