Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 9 March 2022. Under the South Korean constitution, presidents are restricted to a single five-year term, meaning that incumbent president Moon Jae-in was ineligible to run for a second term. Opposition candidate Yoon Suk Yeol of the People Power Party won the election, defeating candidate Lee Jae Myung of the incumbent Democratic Party.
Both main parties had unusually intense primary elections. Upon its nomination of Lee Jae Myung, the second-place Democratic Party candidate Lee Nak-yon called for an appeal of the results, until being forced to concede. In the PPP, frontrunner Yoon and party chairman Lee Jun-seok frequently clashed over Yoon's performance and perceived apathy towards debates with other candidates. The People Party nominated Ahn Cheol-soo and the Justice Party nominated Sim Sang-jung.
Economic inequality, recovery from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, antifeminist sentiment, and housing issues were prominent topics during the election. Analysts observed increased political polarization, record low popularity amongst the candidates, infighting within both main political parties, as well as a negative or divisive tone throughout campaigning. After discussing a potential merger for some time, Ahn withdrew his campaign on 3 March, six days before the election, and endorsed Yoon.
In the closest presidential election in South Korean history, Yoon won the most overall votes and the key area of Seoul, but lost in Gyeonggi Province and Incheon. In addition, this was the country's first-ever direct presidential election in which the national winner failed to secure Jeju Province, a traditional bellwether region.
In 2025, following Yoon's impeachment and removal from office, Lee would go on to succeed him as president following a successful bid for the presidency in the 2025 presidential election.
Background
Following a 2016 political scandal that led to the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye, snap elections were called for 2017. Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party defeated Hong Joon-pyo of the Liberty Korea Party and Ahn Cheol-soo of the People Party by a wide margin in the May 2017 election, bringing the Democrats back to power after nine years. After three years in office, Moon's position was strengthened by his party's victory in the 2020 legislative election, which gave them an absolute majority of 180 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly.
However, in the 2021 Seoul mayoral by-election, young voters in Seoul, who had traditionally sided with the Democratic Party, voted for the conservative People's Power Party (PPP) by large majorities: by a margin of 55.3 percent to 34.1 percent among voters in their 20s, and 56.5 percent to 38.7 percent among voters in their 30s. The incumbent administration was blamed for the housing crisis in Seoul which affected mostly younger citizens in their 20s and was rooted as the main cause of the Democrats' defeat, along with antifeminist sentiment among young male voters. The PPP elected 36-year-old Lee Jun-seok as their new party chief in June 2021. Lee's leadership campaign focused on young people and a big tent approach to the electorate, which was seen as a generational shift in South Korean politics. Lee had never held a public office. Several parties selected candidates for the presidential election who similarly lacked legislative or executive experience. Commentators observed that this reflected growing public distrust in South Korea's establishment politicians.
Electoral system
The president of South Korea is elected by first-preference plurality (FPP), but with a two-party system and primary elections similar to those in the United States (sometimes called a partisan two-round system). The president serves a term of five years and cannot be re-elected.
Nominations
Democratic Party
The Democratic Party (Korean: 더불어민주당) was the ruling political party of South Korea following its victories in the 2017 presidential election, 2018 local elections and the 2020 National Assembly election. The Democratic Party, while technically founded in 2014, is part of a lineage of parties that originated from the conservative 1955 Democratic Party. Parties in this lineage gradually shifted their ideology over the course of decades, and the 2022 Democratic Party is considered a big tent party comprising both centrist and liberal factions.
Politicians in this party generally support a social market economy with a strong social safety net, anti-corruption measures, direct democracy, and environmentalist policies. On matters of foreign policy, the party supports reconciliation and eventual reunification with North Korea. The party is particularly strong in Honam region. The incumbent president at the time, Moon Jae-in, was ineligible to run for reelection due to term limits.
Primary campaign
Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon cemented his frontrunner status for both the Democratic Party's nomination and the general election by his victory in the crucial district of Jongno in the 2020 legislative election. Lee received wide support from President Moon Jae-in's faction of the party, evinced by his landslide victory in the party leadership contest of August 2020. However, Lee's January 2021 proposal to pardon former conservative presidents Park Geun-hye and Lee Myung-bak faced backlash. Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae Myung, who ran a left-wing populist campaign for president in 2017 while Mayor of Seongnam, emerged as a popular alternative bolstered by a well-received response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his proposal for a universal basic income. Moon's second prime minister, Chung Sye-kyun, also resigned to run for the presidency.
The primary campaign saw clashes which became increasingly heated between Lee Nak-yeon and Lee Jae Myung.
Primary schedule and process
The nominating primaries were scheduled to be held in September 2021, although representatives of the Lee Nak-yon and Chung Sye-kyun campaigns called for the primaries to be delayed to November. The calls to delay the primary are seen to be attempts to prevent frontrunner Lee Jae Myung from getting the nomination, as he is the most preferred candidate among the public and the party.
On 25 June, the party's supreme council decided to hold the primary as scheduled by 10 September. The timetable for the process was as follows:
- 28 to 30 June – Registration of candidates
- 9 to 11 July – Preliminary primary involving a 50:50 survey of the general public and party members
- 11 July – announcement of the top six candidates eligible for the main primary
- Before 10 September – Announcement of primary result and party nominee
On 19 July, the party announced a delay in the final selection of candidates to mid-October due to an upsurge in COVID-19 cases in South Korea.
Following the completion of the nationwide primaries on 10 October 2021, Lee Jae Myung was announced as the party's candidate for president.
The votes above only count the votes cast for the four candidates who stayed in the race up to the final round of the primary and do not include votes received by Chung Sye-kyun and Kim Doo-kwan, who both dropped out midway. Before dropping out, Chung had received 23,731 votes and Kim received 4,411 votes.
On 10 October, following the announcement of Lee Jae Myung's nomination, Lee Nak-yeon's campaign stated they would appeal the results. A day later, the campaign submitted a formal appeal to the party. Rep. Hong Young-pyo, co-chair of the Lee Nak-yeon campaign, said that the votes of Kim and Chung should be included in the final result, in which case Lee Jae Myung's vote share would be reduced to 49.32% and run-off would be required. However, party chairman Song Young-gil told reporters he would reject the appeal and urged the former prime minister to concede. Song added that the specific clause of excluding votes received by withdrawn candidates from the final tally was approved during the party convention of August 2020, when Lee Nak-yeon himself was elected party chairman.
On 13 October, the Party Affairs committee, with 64 of the 76 panel members attending, voted by acclamation to dismiss the appeal. Lee Nak-yeon formally conceded and vowed to do his part to ensure the party's victory in the March election.
Candidate
Other primary candidates
The following individuals were candidates for the Democratic Party primaries until the conclusion of the nomination process on 10 October, in the order of announcement of candidacy:
- Lee Nak-yon, former member of the National Assembly (2000–2014, 2020–2021), former Prime Minister (2017–2020), former Governor of South Jeolla (2014–2017) and former leader of the Democratic Party (South Korea, 2015) (2020–2021)
- Park Yong-jin, member of the National Assembly (2016–present)
- Choo Mi-ae, former Minister of Justice (2020–2021), former member of the National Assembly (1996–2004, 2008–2020) and former leader of the Democratic Party (South Korea, 2015) (2016–2018)
Eliminated candidates
On 11 July 2021, the Democratic Party (South Korea, 2015) narrowed its primary candidates down to six in the first round of the party primary. As a result, two candidates were eliminated.
Withdrawn candidates
- Lee Kwang-jae, member of the National Assembly (2004–2010, 2020–present), former Governor of Gangwon (2010–2011)(announced 27 May 2021, withdrew on 5 July and endorsed Chung Sye-kyun)
- Chung Sye-kyun, former Prime Minister (2020–2021), former Speaker of the National Assembly (2016–2018), former member of the National Assembly (2004–2020) (announced 17 June 2021, withdrew on 13 September)
- Kim Doo-kwan, member of the National Assembly (2016–present), former Mayor of Namhae (1995–2002), former Governor of South Gyeongsang (2010–2012), former Minister of Government Administration and Home Affairs (2003) (announced candidacy 1 July 2021, withdrew on 26 September and endorsed Lee Jae Myung)
People Power Party
The People Power Party (국민의힘) is the current iteration of a long line of Korean conservative parties that, throughout modern Korean history, rivaled the long line of parties in the Democratic Party lineage. The party was formally established in 2020 following a merger of multiple conservative parties created in the fallout of the 2016 South Korean corruption scandal that led to the fall of conservative president Park Geun-hye and her Saenuri Party. In the 2017 presidential election, the party's legal predecessor nominated right-wing populist Hong Jun-pyo, who went on to lose the election to liberal Moon Jae-in.
The party lost further ground in the 2020 National Assembly election. However, the party has since regained ground after retaking the mayor's offices of Seoul and Busan in the 2021 South Korean by-elections. On matters of policy, politicians in this party generally support liberal economic policies (including support for chaebols, the industrial conglomerates that dominate the South Korean economy) and hold conservative positions on national security, including hawkish stances on North Korea. The party is particularly strong in the southeastern Gyeongsang region.
Under new party chairman Lee Jun-seok's plans for a 'big tent' approach for the party's appeal to the electorate and desire to unify opposition forces against the Democratic Party, up to 14 individuals have declared or expressed interest in running for the PPP nomination. Another opposition candidate, Ahn Cheol-soo is not a member of the PPP.
Primary campaign
Yoon Suk Yeol, was seen as the frontrunner for the party's nomination since early 2020 despite not initially being a member of the party. Yoon led a January 2021 opinion poll as the most favored presidential candidate at 30.4 percent, over the ruling Democratic Party's Lee Jae Myung and Lee Nak-yeon. Yoon had expressed interest in joining the party, but had also not ruled out the possibility of creating his own party and then forging an electoral alliance with the PPP afterwards. After officially declaring his candidacy on 29 June 2021, Yoon officially joined the PPP on 30 July.
At one point, former Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn, a longtime prosecutor who entered politics as Minister of Justice and later became acting President of South Korea following Park Geun-hye's removal from office, was briefly seen as the most likely right-wing candidate for the 2022 presidential election during a period in 2019. However, his high-profile defeat in the 2020 South Korean legislative election in the crucial Jongno district by Democratic 2022 presidential candidate and former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon obliterated his standing in national polling.
Representative Hong Jun-pyo, the conservative opponent of Moon in 2017, sought the PPP nomination again for 2022, coming in a close second place.
Former National Assembly member Yoo Seong-min, one of the most prominent conservative opponents of Park Geun-hye and a co-founder of the breakaway Bareun Party in 2016, announced his candidacy in May 2020.
Choi Jae-hyung, former Chairman of the Board of Audit and Inspection, joined the party on 15 July 2021. On 26 July, Choi officially registered his candidacy with the National Election Commission. On 30 July, upon frontrunner Yoon Suk Yeol's entrance into the People Power Party, Choi personally welcomed Yoon in a small COVID-19-aware media ceremony.
Chang Sŏng-min, former aide to president Kim Dae-jung and former member of the National Assembly (2000–2002) joined PPP on 2 August and announced his candidacy on 15 August 2021.