9 May 2017 2022 → | Location South Korea | |
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The 19th South Korean presidential election is scheduled to be held on 9 May 2017, after the impeachment and dismissal of incumbent Park Geun-hye. Under present law, the election will be decided in a single round on a first-past-the-post basis.
Contents
- Background
- Impeachment processes
- Democratic Party
- Liberty Korea Party
- Peoples Party
- Bareun Party
- Justice Party
- Potential candidates
- Christian Liberal Party
- Nonpartisan
- Declined
- References
The election was originally scheduled to be held on or before 20 December 2017, but was moved after the decision of the Constitutional Court to uphold the parliament's impeachment of Park Geun-hye. In the meantime, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn succeeded Park as acting president and will finish out the remainder of the 18th term. Acting president Hwang has indicated he will not run for a term in his own right.
Background
Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party won the previous presidential election in 2012, succeeding Lee Myung-bak of the same party.
The Saenuri Party lost the parliamentary election in April 2016, with opposition parties including liberal Democratic Party of Korea and People's Party winning a majority in the National Assembly. Commentators described the result as leaving Park a lame duck president, as she may not run again under South Korea's one-term presidency rule. and the Nikkei Asian Review noted that, in the wake of her "crushing defeat", "rivals sense a prime opportunity to complete the power shift in the December 2017 presidential vote". The Korea Times stated: "The drama of deals and power struggles for next year's election has already begun."
Impeachment processes
On 9 December 2016 Park was impeached by parliament by a vote of 234 for and 56 against (with seven invalid votes and two abstentions). The Constitutional Court reviewed the motion of impeachment. Park was formally removed from office, with a unanimous ruling by all eight of the Constitutional Court's justices supporting her impeachment, on 10 March 2017. A presidential election must now be held within 60 days. In the interim, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn succeeds Park and will see out the remainder of the 18th term.
Democratic Party
Liberty Korea Party
People's Party
Bareun Party
Justice Party
Potential candidates
The five parties represented in the National Assembly are the ruling conservative Liberty Korea Party, the liberal Democratic Party of Korea, the centrist People's Party, the newly established conservative Bareun Party, and the progressive Justice Party. Potential candidates are listed below by their present party-political affiliation.