Elections in South Korea


Elections in South Korea are held on 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 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.
Since the 2020 legislative elections, South Korea has two main parties, the centre-left liberal Democratic Party of Korea and the right-wing conservative United Future Party. In addition, there are currently two notable minor parties: the liberal-conservative centrist Minsaeng Party & the progressive Justice Party.

Election Technology

s are usually located in schools. During the
absentee or early voting period, voters can vote at any polling 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 office up for election, ballot papers are color 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 center. 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

Inauguration

Latest elections

2018 local election

2017 presidential election

2020 South Korean legislative election

In the 2020 South Korean legislative election the Democratic Party and its satellite, the Platform Party, won a landslide victory, taking 180 of the 300 seats between them. The Democratic Party alone won 163 seats — the highest number by any party since 1960. This guarantees the ruling liberal alliance an absolute majority in the legislative chamber, and the three-fifths super-majority required to fast-track its procedures. The conservative alliance between the United Future Party and its satellite Future Korea Party won only 103 seats, the worst conservative result since 1960.

Summary of past elections

Presidential elections

Legislative elections

Local elections