Elections in South Korea

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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]

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

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 (May) Local (June)	None	National Assembly (April)	None	Local (June)	Presidential (March)
President	President	None				President
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)	None	Local (July)	Presidential (May)
President	May 10	None				May 10
National Assembly	None		May 30	None
Provinces, cities and municipalities	July 1	None			July 1	None

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

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

• 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.

• 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)