Global Information2017 South Korean presidential election information
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| Turnout | 77.23% ( 1.39) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Politics of South Korea |
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 Constitutional Court of Korea President Lee Jong-seok |
 South Korea portal
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- Moon Jae-in becomes President of South Korea
Early presidential elections were held in South Korea on 9 May 2017 following the impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye.[1] The elections were conducted in a single round, on a first-past-the-post basis, and had originally been scheduled for 20 December 2017. However, they were brought forward after the decision of the Constitutional Court on 10 March 2017 to uphold the National Assembly's impeachment of Park. 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.[2][3][4]
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 Jun-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.
- ^ McCurry, Justin (9 March 2017). "South Korean president Park Geun-hye forced from office by constitutional court". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 March 2017.
- ^ "황교안 대선 불출마 선언" (in Korean). Kyunghyang Shinmun. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
- ^ "PM not to run for presidency". The Korea Times. 15 March 2017. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
- ^ Sang-hun, Choe (15 March 2017). "South Korea to Elect New President in May, Government Says". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 May 2017.