19 December 2007 2012 → 6,174,681 3,559,963 26.1% 15.1% | 11,492,389 6,174,681 48.7% 26.1% Start date December 19, 2007 | |
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Winners Lee Myung‑bak, Chung Dong‑young, Lee Hoi‑chang, Huh Kyung‑young, Kwon Young‑ghil | ||
The 17th South Korean presidential election took place on 19 December 2007. 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 United New Democratic Party candidate Chung Dong-young and independent candidate Lee Hoi-chang by the largest margin since direct elections were reintroduced in 1987. It also marked the first time a president-elect in Korea was under investigation by a prosecutor. Voter turnout was 63.0%, an all-time low according to the National Election Commission.
Contents
Timeline
This list of dates are the major events managed by the NEC (National Election Commission).
Liberal primaries
On this election, there were three liberal parties contested.
UNDP primary
Chung Dong-young was elected as the official candidate of the party on October 14, 2007.
Creative Korea Party primary
Democrats primary
Lee In-je was elected as the official presidential candidate of the party.
Conservative (GNP) primary
The GNP primary consisted of opinion polling and popular vote (only party member could participate). The official result was announced on August 20, 2007, at 07:20 UTC, naming Lee Myung-bak the presidential candidate from the Hannara party. Because Lee Myung-bak 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 Myung-bak. Park Geun-hye declared her presidential candidacy in the 2012 presidential election and won the primary.
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.
Voting method
1st round
The official results of the first round, as announced on September 9, 2007, at 07:30 UTC, were:
No candidate received a majority of the votes, so a second round of the presidential primary was scheduled from September 10 to September 15.
Final (2nd) round
As a result, the official presidential candidate of Democratic Labour Party: Kwon Young-ghil.
Exit polls
The Exit poll was announced at 18:00 on election day. (As voting time was over)
It expected Lee Myung-bak's absolute majority.
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.
According to Wikileaks, 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.