2007_South_Korean_presidential_election

2007 South Korean presidential election

2007 South Korean presidential election

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Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2007.[1] The election was won by Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, returning conservatives to the Blue House for the first time in ten years. Lee defeated Grand Unified Democratic New Party nominee Chung Dong-young and independent Lee Hoi-chang by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, the largest since direct elections were reintroduced in 1987.[2] It also marked the first time a president-elect in Korea was under investigation by a prosecutor.[3] Voter turnout was 63.0%, an all-time low according to the National Election Commission.[4]

Quick Facts Turnout, Nominee ...

Background

On 28 February 2007 the official census was published, identifying the number of eligible voters, with the electoral rolls compiled and published between 21 and 26 November, before being finalised on 12 December. Pre-registration of candidates began on 23 April, with 25–26 November as the dates to officially register.[5]

Candidates

The elections were a three-way race between the ruling Grand Unified Democratic New Party's Chung Dong-young, opposition Grand National Party's Lee Myung-bak, and conservative independent Lee Hoi-chang. Also in the race but polling less than 10% were former Yuhan Kimberly CEO Moon Kook-hyun and congressman Kwon Young-ghil from Ulsan.

Grand Unified Democratic New primaries

Further information: Grand Unified Democratic New Party § Presidential election primary

A total of nine candidates ran to be the Grand Unified Democratic New Party presidential candidate;

An opinion poll was conducted on 2,400 eligible voters and 10,000 of those who signed up to vote in the primaries between 3 and 5 September; only the top five candidates were allowed to advance to the full primary elections.

More information Candidate, Electors ...

Despite qualifying for the full primary vote, Han Myeong-sook withdrew her bid for nomination and endorsed Lee Hae-chan before the primary races began. The primary races counted for 90% of the final result and the opinion poll 10%.

More information Dates, Races ...

At the UNDP National Convention, held on October 15, 2007, Chung was officially named the party's presidential nominee.[6]

Grand National primaries

Five candidates contested the primaries of the Grand National Party:[7]

Former Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-kyu sought to participate, but he later decided to instead run for the UNDP nomination, and failed.

The GNP primary consisted of opinion polling (weighted 20%) and popular vote by pre-registered electors (weighted 80%). The poll and the voting were all conducted on 19 August and the results were announced at the National Convention on 20 August, naming Lee Myung-bak as the official nominee.[8][9] Because Lee won the race with a slight margin, there was controversy regarding the method primary election used (opinion poll). However, Park Geun-hye conceded her loss to Lee. Park ran again in 2012 and won the primary.

More information Races, Lee ...

Lee Hoi-chang

1997 and 2002 presidential candidate for GNP, Lee Hoi-chang had announced his candidacy on November 7, 2007 as an independent, not joining GNP primary.

Democratic Labor primary

The primary election of the Democratic Labour Party involved two types of voting;

  • Online voting: All members of this party can log on to the official homepage to cast their vote. Confirmation process by cell phone is needed.
  • Off-line voting: There are 227 voting stations around the nation. Voters can cast their vote from 09:00 to 22:00

The total number of party members that were eligible to cast a vote was 50,117.[10]

No candidate received a majority of the votes, so a second round of the presidential primary was scheduled from 10 to 15 September.[11]

More information Candidate, First round ...

First round results by province

More information Dates, Races ...

Creative Korea primary

Moon Kook-hyun (문국현), former CEO of Yuhan Kimberly (Kimberly-Clark's company in Korea), was elected as the official presidential candidate of the party on 4 November 2007, through mobile voting amongst party members.

More information Choice, Votes ...

Exit polls

An exit poll was announced at 18:00 on election day, at which point voting had finished. It predicted Lee Myung-bak had won an absolute majority.[14]

More information Candidate, Prediction ...

Results

Result by municipalities
More information Candidate, Party ...

By region

Major candidates

Breakdown of votes by region for candidates with at least 1% of the total votes.

More information Region, Lee Myung-bak ...

Minor candidates

Breakdown of votes by region for candidates with less than 1% of the total votes.

More information Region, LeeIn-je ...

Other information

On April 7, 2011, a National Intelligence Service agent was guilty of investigating Lee Myung-bak's secret real estate-related information before the election.[15]

According to leaked diplomatic cables, Yoo Chong-ha (유종하), the former co-chairman of Lee Myung-bak's presidential election campaign, requested to then American ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, to delay the extraction of the main individual of the BBK embezzlement scandal, Christopher Kim (Kim Kyung-joon), to Korea on the request to prevent spreading controversies related to Lee Myung-bak's involvement in the BBK embezzlement scandal during the election season.[16][17]

References

  1. [1]
    Schedule of 17th presidential election (Hangul 2002 format)
  2. [2]
    Lee Myung-bak Elected President by a Landslide Archived 2007-12-21 at the Wayback Machine, The Chosun Ilbo, December 19, 2007. Retrieved on December 20, 2007.
  3. [3]
    President-Elect Faces Probe, The Korea Times, December 19, 2007. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
  4. [4]
    Kim, Ji-hyun (2007-12-19). "Lee Myung-bak cruises to landslide victory". The Korea Herald.
  5. [5]
    Timeline (detailed) of 2007 presidential election Archived 2007-09-28 at archive.today (Korean), the NEC, 2007
  6. [6]
    대통합민주신당 대선후보 정동영은 누구 (in Korean). 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  7. [7]
    Asaba, Yūki. “한국에서의 대선후보선출과 정당정치: 제17대 대선을 중심으로.” Yamaguchi Prefectural University, 2007, pp. 131–131.
  8. [8]
    "Lee Myeong-bak beats Park Geun-hye with a narrow margin". Korea JoongAng Daily (in Korean). August 20, 2007.[dead link]
  9. [9]
    Kim Yeon-seok(김연석) (20 August 2007). "Lee Myung-bak wins GNP primary [이명박, 근소한 차 대선후보 확정]" (in Korean). Retrieved 29 April 2012.
  10. [10]
    First round of results from 3 division will be the dividing point (Korean), The Hankyoreh. Retrieved on August 22, 2007.
  11. [11]
    Kwon Young-ghil hasn't succeed to gain more than 50% of the vote (Korean), Ohmynews. Retrieved on September 9, 2007.
  12. [12]
    권영길 49.4% 득표…심상정 2위 돌풍. Media Today (in Korean). 2007-09-09. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  13. [13]
    민주노동당 대선후보 권영길 확정 (in Korean). 2007-09-15. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  14. [14]
    Lee Myung-bak cruises to landslide victory The Korea Herald, 17 December 2007
  15. [15]
    Im (임), Su-jeong (수정) (2011-04-07). "MB 부동산 소문 뒷조사 국정원 직원 징역형 (종합)" (in Korean). Yonhap News. Retrieved 2011-04-10.
  16. [16]
    Choi (최), Min-yeong (민영) (2011-09-03). ""BBK 김경준 송환 미뤄달라" 이명박 후보 측 미국에 요청". The Hankyoreh (in Korean). Retrieved 2011-12-17.
  17. [17]
    Mun (문), Yong-pil (용필) (2011-09-05). "위키리크스 MB실체 폭로…"사실상 매국" 경악". Newsface (in Korean). Archived from the original on 2012-04-25. Retrieved 2011-12-17.
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