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2007 South Korean presidential election

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2007 South Korean presidential election
← 2002 19 December 2007 2012 →
Turnout63.03% (Decrease 7.80pp)
 
Nominee Lee Myung-bak Chung Dong-young
Party Grand National New Democratic
Popular vote 11,492,389 6,174,681
Percentage 48.67% 26.15%
 
Nominee Lee Hoi-chang Moon Kook-hyun
Party Independent Creative Korea
Popular vote 3,559,963 1,375,498
Percentage 15.08% 5.83%
President before election

Roh Moo-hyun
Independent

Elected President

Lee Myung-bak
Grand National

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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%, an all-time low according to the National Election Commission.[4]

Background

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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

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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

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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.

Candidate Electors % Non-Members % Total %
Sohn Hak-kyu 2,207 23.4 2,460 26.1 4,667 24.8
Chung Dong-young 2,339 24.8 2,274 24.1 4,613 24.5
Lee Hae-chan 1,339 14.2 1,370 14.5 2,709 14.4
Rhyu Si-min 1,057 11.2 856 9.1 1,913 10.1
Han Myeong-sook 761 8.1 1,015 10.8 1,776 9.4
Others 1,725 18.3 1,453 15.4 3,178 16.9
Total 9,428 100 9,428 100 18,856 100
Source: [1]

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%.

Dates Races Chung Sohn Lee Rhyu Total
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
15 September Jeju 3,003 32.8 2,754 30.1 1,866 20.4 1,528 16.7 9,151
Ulsan 2,262 34.8 1,335 20.5 1,548 23.8 1,362 20.9 6,507
16 September Gangwon 2,311 31.1 2,359 31.8 2,751 37.1 – – 7,421
North Chungcheong 6,334 52.7 2,920 24.3 2,760 23.0 – – 12,014
17 September Gwangju 10,841 47.6 7,948 34.9 4,007 17.6 – – 22,796
South Jeolla 15,224 46.1 11,958 36.2 5,819 17.6 – – 33,001
30 September Busan 6,689 37.6 4,508 25.3 6,614 37.1 – – 17,811
South Gyeongsang 4,461 34.8 4,069 31.8 4,276 33.4 – – 12,806
9 October Mobile-1 7,004 33.5 7,649 36.5 6,285 30.0 – – 20,938
11 October Mobile-2 19,288 34.6 21,359 38.4 15,035 27.0 – – 55,682
10–12 October Opinion Poll 21,850 44.1 17,525 35.3 10,216 20.6 – – 49,591
13-14 October Mobile-3 35,846 35.5 41,023 40.7 23,964 23.8 – – 100,833
14 October North Jeolla 38,078 81.3 6,387 13.6 2,367 5.1 – – 46,832
Daejeon 1,766 33.9 1,464 28.1 1,974 37.9 – – 5,204
South Chungcheong 2,182 32.6 1,616 24.1 2,895 43.3 – – 6,693
Daegu 1,108 25.7 1,530 35.5 1,677 38.9 – – 4,315
North Gyeongsang 1,598 33.4 2,017 42.1 1,174 24.5 – – 4,789
Gyeonggi 13,025 40.2 13,587 42.0 5,767 17.8 – – 32,379
Incheon 3,117 41.0 3,160 41.5 1,331 17.5 – – 7,608
Seoul 20,997 49.5 13,631 32.1 7,802 18.4 – – 42,430
Total 216,984 43.8 168,799 34.0 110,128 22.2 – – 495,911

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

Grand National primaries

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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.

Races Lee Park Won Hong Total
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
Seoul 16,190 58.0 11,113 39.8 330 1.2 271 1.0 27,904
Incheon 3,089 49.1 3,135 49.9 36 0.6 25 0.4 6,285
Gyeonggi 12,779 50.0 12,543 49.1 161 0.6 88 0.3 25,571
Gangwon 1,866 43.0 2,436 56.2 22 0.5 14 0.3 4,338
North Chungcheong 1,823 43.3 2,343 55.7 26 0.6 16 0.4 4,208
South Chungcheong 2,271 41.3 3,179 57.8 26 0.5 24 0.4 5,500
Daejeon 1,272 34.1 2,404 64.4 40 1.1 18 0.5 3,734
North Jeolla 2,141 55.3 1,581 40.8 111 2.9 39 1.0 3,872
South Jeolla 2,692 57.0 1,852 39.2 133 2.8 48 1.0 4,725
Gwangju 1,338 57.6 853 36.8 104 4.5 26 1.1 2,321
North Gyeongsang 4,455 46.3 5,111 53.1 31 0.3 24 0.2 9,621
South Gyeongsang 4,498 48.1 4,748 50.8 76 0.8 30 0.3 9,352
Daegu 2,305 31.1 5,072 68.4 19 0.3 22 0.3 7,418
Busan 5,273 47.2 5,789 51.8 60 0.5 47 0.4 11,169
Ulsan 1,517 47.7 1,637 51.4 18 0.6 11 0.3 3,183
Jeju 707 41.8 852 50.4 126 7.4 7 0.4 1,692
Opinion poll 16,868 51.5 13,984 42.7 1,079 3.3 793 2.4 32,724
Total 81,084 49.6 78,632 48.1 2,398 1.5 1,503 0.9 163,617

Lee Hoi-chang

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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

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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]

Candidate First round Second round
Votes % Votes %
Kwon Young-ghil 19,053 49.4 19,109 52.7
Sim Sang-jung 10,064 26.1 17,122 47.3
Roh Hoe-chan 9,478 24.6
Total 38,595 100 36,231 100
Source: Media Today,[12] Hani [13]

First round results by province

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Dates Races Kwon Sim Roh Total
Aug. 24 Jeju 234 37.3% 196 31.3% 197 31.4% 627
Aug. 25 South Jeolla 912 59.8% 291 19.1% 321 21.1% 1,524
Gwangju 837 60.3% 217 15.6% 334 24.1% 1,388
Aug. 26 North Gyeongsang 586 32.3% 648 35.7% 580 32.0% 1,814
Daegu 449 38.4% 342 29.3% 377 32.3% 1,168
Aug. 29 South Chungcheong 618 37.7% 482 29.4% 540 32.4% 1,640
Daejeon 307 39.7% 270 34.9% 196 25.4% 773
Sep. 1 North Jeolla 1,429 56.9% 422 16.8% 660 26.3% 2,511
Sep. 2 South Gyeongsang 2,686 62.9% 911 21.3% 677 15.8% 4,274
Sep. 3 Busan 1,076 48.9% 532 24.2% 592 26.9% 2,200
Sep. 5 Ulsan 1,407 59.8% 599 25.5% 347 14.7% 2,353
Sep. 7 North Chungcheong 332 28.8% 497 43.1% 323 28.0% 1,152
Sep. 8 Gangwon 498 38.2% 392 30.1% 414 31.87 1,304
Sep. 9 Gyeonggi 3,518 57.0% 1,415 22.9% 1,242 20.1% 6,175
Incheon 1,578 56.4% 669 23.9% 553 19.75% 2,800
Seoul 2,578 37.5% 2,172 31.6% 2,122 30.9% 6,872
Abroad 8 40.0% 9 45.0% 3 15.0% 20
Total 19,053 49.4% 10,064 26.1% 9,478 24.6% 38,595

Creative Korea primary

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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.

Choice Votes %
For Moon 8,884 95.0
Against 468 5.0
Total 9,352 100
Source: Polinews

Exit polls

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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]

Candidate Prediction Estimated %
Lee Myung-bak Winner 50.3
Chung Dong-young 2nd 26.0
Lee Hoi-chang 3rd 13.5

Results

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Result by municipalities
CandidatePartyVotes%
Lee Myung-bakGrand National Party11,492,38948.67
Chung Dong-youngGrand Unified Democratic New Party6,174,68126.15
Lee Hoi-changIndependent3,559,96315.08
Moon Kook-hyunCreative Korea Party1,375,4985.83
Kwon Young-ghilDemocratic Labor Party712,1213.02
Lee In-jeDemocratic Party160,7080.68
Huh Kyung-youngEconomic Republican Party96,7560.41
Geum MinSocialist Party18,2230.08
Chung Kun-moTrue Owner Coalition15,3800.07
Chun KwanChamsaram Society Full True Act7,1610.03
Total23,612,880100.00
Valid votes23,612,88099.49
Invalid/blank votes119,9740.51
Total votes23,732,854100.00
Registered voters/turnout37,653,51863.03
Source: Park & Lee, IFES

By region

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Major candidates

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

Region Lee Myung-bak Chung Dong-young Lee Hoi-chang Moon Kook-hyun Kwon Young-ghil
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
Seoul 2,689,162 53.2 1,237,812 24.5 596,226 11.8 358,781 7.1 116,344 2.3
Busan 1,018,715 57.9 236,708 13.5 346,319 19.7 94,285 5.4 48,901 2.8
Daegu 876,719 69.4 75,932 6.0 228,199 18.1 50,514 4.0 25,777 2.0
Incheon 593,283 49.2 286,565 23.8 183,057 15.2 84,814 7.0 42,069 3.5
Gwangju 56,875 8.6 527,588 79.8 22,520 3.4 31,524 4.8 13,597 2.1
Daejeon 246,008 36.3 159,700 23.6 195,957 28.9 48,143 7.1 17,207 2.5
Ulsan 279,891 54.0 70,736 13.6 90,905 17.5 28,605 5.5 43,607 8.4
Gyeonggi 2,603,443 51.9 1,181,936 23.6 670,742 13.4 354,492 7.1 144,830 2.9
Gangwon 376,004 52.0 136,668 18.9 127,102 17.6 42,552 5.9 28,129 3.9
North Chungcheong 289,499 41.6 165,637 23.8 162,750 23.4 39,884 5.7 25,285 3.6
South Chungcheong 313,693 34.3 192,999 21.1 304,259 33.2 43,383 4.7 32,132 3.5
North Jeolla 86,149 9.0 777,236 81.6 34,630 3.6 26,573 2.8 18,139 1.9
South Jeolla 88,834 9.2 757,309 78.7 34,790 3.6 31,289 3.2 23,178 2.4
North Gyeongsang 1,033,957 72.6 96,822 6.8 195,526 13.7 47,345 3.3 39,327 2.8
South Gyeongsang 843,662 55.0 189,463 12.4 329,486 21.5 73,893 4.8 82,645 5.4
Jeju 96,495 38.7 81,570 32.7 37,495 15.0 19,421 7.8 10,954 4.4
Total 11,492,389 48.7 6,174,681 26.1 3,559,963 15.1 1,375,498 5.8 712,121 3.0
Source: National Election Commission

Minor candidates

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

Region Lee
In-je 		Huh
Kyung-young 		Geum
Min 		Chung
Kun-mo 		Chun
Kwan
Seoul 23,214 22,405 3,501 3,013 911
Busan 4,599 7,351 1,198 770 406
Daegu 1,847 3,375 727 367 221
Incheon 7,612 5,769 1,068 797 323
Gwangju 7,118 1,547 289 398 96
Daejeon 7,223 2,356 683 467 204
Ulsan 1,884 2,059 467 271 121
Gyeonggi 30,513 23,554 3,207 3,378 1,312
Gangwon 6,085 5,063 849 615 436
North Chungcheong 7,965 3,435 759 561 321
South Chungcheong 22,592 3,814 1,131 934 568
North Jeolla 6,550 1,777 538 590 270
South Jeolla 23,074 2,179 743 938 517
North Gyeongsang 3,823 4,696 1,458 819 699
South Gyeongsang 4,935 6,063 1,261 1,310 612
Jeju 1,674 1,273 344 152 144
Total 160,708 96,756 18,223 15,380 7,161
Source: National Election Commission

Other information

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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

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  1. ^ Schedule of 17th presidential election (Hangul 2002 format)
  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. ^ President-Elect Faces Probe, The Korea Times, December 19, 2007. Retrieved December 20, 2007.
  4. ^ Kim, Ji-hyun (2007-12-19). "Lee Myung-bak cruises to landslide victory". The Korea Herald.
  5. ^ Timeline (detailed) of 2007 presidential election Archived 2007-09-28 at archive.today (Korean), the NEC, 2007
  6. ^ 대통합민주신당 대선후보 정동영은 누구 (in Korean). 2007-10-15. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  7. ^ Asaba, Yūki. “한국에서의 대선후보선출과 정당정치: 제17대 대선을 중심으로.” Yamaguchi Prefectural University, 2007, pp. 131–131.
  8. ^ "Lee Myeong-bak beats Park Geun-hye with a narrow margin". Korea JoongAng Daily (in Korean). August 20, 2007.[dead link‍]
  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. ^ First round of results from 3 division will be the dividing point (Korean), The Hankyoreh. Retrieved on August 22, 2007.
  11. ^ Kwon Young-ghil hasn't succeed to gain more than 50% of the vote (Korean), Ohmynews. Retrieved on September 9, 2007.
  12. ^ 권영길 49.4% 득표…심상정 2위 돌풍. Media Today (in Korean). 2007-09-09. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  13. ^ 민주노동당 대선후보 권영길 확정 (in Korean). 2007-09-15. Retrieved 2018-04-21.
  14. ^ Lee Myung-bak cruises to landslide victory The Korea Herald, 17 December 2007
  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. ^ 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. ^ 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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