South Korean Elections
AS OF 2026-07-22 · 45 CONTESTS · presidential, 3 June 2025 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
Next election · Assembly election, April 2028 · Capital · Seoul in the metro rankings →
Where the chamber sits · 6.6 of 10, left to right, spread 0.6 →
Every South Korean presidential election from 1948 to the post-martial-law snap vote of 2025, and every National Assembly election since 1948: the rigged and rubber-stamp contests of the authoritarian decades labelled as such, and the fierce two-camp democracy since 1987.
Presidential elections
22
1948–2025
Assembly elections
23
1946–2024
President today
Lee Jae Myung
elected 2025 · single five-year term
Democratic era
1987
the June Uprising forced direct elections
Presidential elections
All 22 presidential contests, newest first. The rigged 1960 vote and the rubber-stamp rituals of the Yushin and Fifth Republic years are labelled as such on every page.
The alternation era · 2007–2025
Power has swung between the two big camps ever since: Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye — the first woman president, later impeached — then Moon Jae-in's post-impeachment win, Yoon Suk Yeol's razor-thin 2022 victory, and after Yoon's martial-law declaration and removal, Lee Jae-myung's 2025 snap-election landslide.
Democratisation · 1987–2002
The June 1987 uprising forced direct elections. A split opposition let Roh Tae-woo win the founding contest; Kim Young-sam, Kim Dae-jung — the first opposition transfer of power, in the teeth of the IMF crisis — and Roh Moo-hyun followed, each by single-round plurality.
Yushin and the Fifth Republic · 1972–1981
Under the Yushin constitution and its successor, presidents were 'elected' unopposed by a rubber-stamp conference or electoral college — Park twice, then Choi Kyu-hah briefly, then coup-maker Chun Doo-hwan twice. Recorded here as rituals of authoritarian rule, not elections.
The Park Chung Hee elections · 1963–1971
After his 1961 coup, Park Chung Hee legitimised his rule through direct presidential contests — winning narrowly in 1963, comfortably in 1967, and in 1971 fending off Kim Dae-jung by a margin small enough to convince him never to risk a real election again.
The First Republic and its fall · 1948–1960
Syngman Rhee was chosen by the Assembly in 1948 and re-elected by increasingly manipulated direct votes. The blatantly rigged March 1960 election ignited the April Revolution that toppled him; the August 1960 contest, held by the new parliamentary republic, chose a figurehead president indirectly.
National Assembly elections
Every National Assembly election, newest first, from the 1948 Constitutional Assembly through the appointed-seat Assemblies of the Yushin years to the democratic era's midterm verdicts on each presidency.
The democratic Assembly · 1988–2024
Since 1988 the National Assembly has been the arena of Korea's fierce two-camp politics — frequently controlled by the president's opponents, as in 2016's rebuke of Park Geun-hye and 2024's landslide against Yoon Suk Yeol months before his martial-law gamble.
Democratic 173People Power 108Rebuilding Korea 12others 4
Democratic 180People 3Open Democratic 3others 114
Democratic 123Saenuri 122People 38others 11
Saenuri 152Democratic United 127Unified Progressive 13others 3
Grand National 153Liberty Forward 18Democratic Labor 5others 120
Uri 152Grand National 121Democratic Labor 10others 7
Grand National 133others 140
New Korea Party 121National Congress for New Politics 66United Liberal Democrats 41others 46
Democratic Liberal Party 116Democratic Party 75Unification National Party 24others 62
Democratic Justice Party 87Peace Democratic Party 54Reunification Democratic Party 46others 75
The Park era Assemblies · 1960–1971
The democratic interlude of 1960 was cut short by the 1961 coup; the Assemblies elected from 1963 operated in the shadow of Park's presidency, with real opposition that could be contained but not eliminated.
Democratic Republican Party 86New Democratic Party 65National Party 1others 51
Democratic Republican Party 102New Democratic Party 28Mass Party 1others 44
Democratic Republican Party 88Civil Rule Party 27Democratic Party 8others 44
Democratic Party 175Independents 49Socialist Mass Party 4
Founding assemblies · 1946–1958
From the occupation-era interim legislature and the 1948 Constitutional Assembly that wrote the republic into being, through the wartime and postwar Assemblies under Syngman Rhee's tightening grip.
Liberal Party 126Democratic Party 79Independents 27
Liberal Party 114Independents 68Democratic Nationalist Party 15
Independents 126Democratic Nationalist Party 24Korea Nationalist Party 24others 3
Independents 85NARRKI 55Korea Democratic Party 29
The long arc in charts
Direct presidential votes only; the rubber-stamp rituals are excluded. Hover for exact figures.
Turnout in direct elections
The founding democratic election of 1987 drew 89%; the 2025 snap election's 79.4% was the highest in nearly three decades.
The winner's share
Single-round plurality means narrow mandates: Roh Tae-woo won the founding contest with under 37% against a split opposition, and 2022 was decided by 0.73 points.
Records & superlatives
Highest democratic turnout
89.2%
1987 presidential election
Lowest democratic turnout
63.0%
2007 presidential election
Closest race
0.73 pts
Yoon Suk Yeol over Lee Jae Myung, 2022
Biggest democratic win
51.6%
Park Geun-hye, 2012
Presidents elected by rubber stamp
5
the unopposed Yushin and Fifth Republic rituals, 1972–1981
Democratic Assembly elections
10
since 1988 — frequently won by the president's opponents
How South Korean elections work
One round, one term
The president is elected by simple plurality in a single round, for one five-year term with no re-election, a constitutional answer to the decades of strongmen extending their rule.
A mixed Assembly
The National Assembly's 300 seats mix constituency winners with proportional list seats, elected every four years, deliberately out of phase with the presidency, so every president faces a mid-term verdict.
The two camps
Since democratisation, politics has been a duel between a conservative camp (today's People Power Party, in red) and a liberal one (the Democratic Party, in blue), with third-candidate splits deciding several presidencies.
Impeachment as a feature
Two presidents have been removed by impeachment since 2017, each removal triggering a 60-day snap election, the constitutional machinery that produced both the 2017 and 2025 contests.