2002 South Korean presidential election

Presidential elections were held in South Korea on 19 December 2002. The result was a victory for Roh Moo-Hyun of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party, who defeated Lee Hoi-chang of the Grand National Party by just over half a million votes.[1]

2002 South Korean presidential election
19 December 2002
 
Nominee Roh Moo-hyun Lee Hoi-chang
Party Millennium Democratic Grand National
Popular vote 12,014,277 11,443,297
Percentage 48.91% 46.59%
Results by province and city

■ – Roh Moo-hyun

■ – Lee Hoi-chang
Results by municipality
President before election

Kim Dae-jung
Millennium Democratic

 Elected President

Roh Moo-hyun
Millennium Democratic

South Korea
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Background

President Kim Dae-jung's National Congress for New Politics (NCNP) re-branded itself to Millennium Democratic Party (MDP) in 2000, but was struggling as it had defeated by the Grand National Party (GNP) both the 2000 parliamentary election and 2002 gubernatorial elections. GNP's then leader and probable presidential nominee Lee Hoi-chang was polling higher than any MDP candidates.

Primaries

Millennium Democratic Party

For the first time in South Korean history, the Democratic Party nominated its presidential candidate through open primaries.

At the beginning of the primaries, Rhee In-je, the 3-term congressman who ran against President Kim in 1997 but afterwards joined the ruling party, led the other candidates by a considerable margin in every poll. However, fringe candidate Roh Moo-hyun rose to prominence after winning the Gwangju contest, eventually winning his party's nomination and then the presidential election.

Candidates

Contests
Absolute majority needed
Dates Races Roh Rhee Chung Kim J Han Yu Kim G Total
9/3 Jeju 125 18.6% 172 25.6% 110 16.4% 55 8.2% 175 26.1% 18 2.7% 16 2.4% 671 100%
10/3 Ulsan 298 29.4% 222 21.9% 65 6.4% 281 27.8% 116 11.5% 20 2.0% 10 1.0% 1,012 100%
16/3 Gwangju 595 37.9% 491 31.3% 54 3.4% 148 9.4% 280 17.9% - - - - 1,568 100%
17/3 Daejeon 219 16.5% 894 67.5% 54 4.1% 81 6.1% 77 5.8% - - - - 1,325 100%
23/3 South Chungcheong 277 14.2% 1,432 73.7% 39 2.0% 196 10.1% - - - - - - 1,944 100%
24/3 Gangwon 630 42.5% 623 42.0% 71 4.8% 159 10.7% - - - - - - 1,483 100%
30/3 South Gyeongsang 1,713 72.2% 468 19.7% 191 8.1% - - - - - - - - 2,372 100%
31/3 North Jeolla 756 34.3% 710 32.2% 738 33.5% - - - - - - - - 2,204 100%
5/4 Daegu 1,137 62.3% 506 27.7% 181 9.9% - - - - - - - - 1,824 100%
6/4 Incheon 1,022 51.9% 816 41.4% 131 6.7% - - - - - - - - 1,969 100%
7/4 North Gyeongsang 1,246 59.4% 668 31.9% 183 8.7% - - - - - - - - 2,097 100%
13/4 North Chungcheong 387 32.1% 734 61.0% 83 6.9% - - - - - - - - 1,204 100%
14/4 South Jeolla 1,297 62.0% 454 21.7% 340 16.3% - - - - - - - - 2,091 100%
20/4 Busan 1,328 62.5% - - 796 37.5% - - - - - - - - 2,124 100%
21/4 Gyeonggi 1,191 45.5% - - 1,426 54.5% - - - - - - - - 2,617 100%
26/4 Internet Voting 1,423 81.3% - - 327 18.7% - - - - - - - - 1,750 100%
27/4 Seoul 3,924 66.5% - - 1,978 33.5% - - - - - - - - 5,902 100%
Total 17,577 72.2% - - 6,767 27.8% - - - - - - - - 24,344 100%

Candidates

Contests
Simple plurality needed
Dates Races Lee H Choi Lee B Lee S Total
13/4 Incheon 1,111 79.3% 79 5.6% 201 14.3% 10 0.7% 1,401 100%
18/4 Ulsan 446 59.0% 206 27.2% 73 9.7% 31 4.1% 756 100%
20/4 Jeju 361 73.4% 65 13.2% 48 12.1% 18 2.2% 492 100%
23/4 Gangwon 891 80.5% 101 9.1% 71 6.4% 44 4.0% 1,107 100%
24/4 North Gyeongsang, Daegu 3,143 83.7% 427 11.4% 133 3.5% 54 1.4% 2,757 100%
27/4 North Jeolla 505 54.2% 117 12.6% 278 29.9% 31 3.3% 931 100%
28/4 South Gyeongsang, Busan 2,895 70.1% 934 22.6% 197 4.8% 103 2.5% 4,129 100%
30/4 South Chungcheong, Daejeon 1,643 83.6% 153 7.8% 124 6.3% 45 2.3% 1,965 100%
2/5 South Jeolla, Gwangju 1,112 54.0% 368 17.9% 512 24.9% 67 3.3% 2,059 100%
4/5 Gyeonggi 2,461 71.3% 424 12.3% 486 14.1% 81 2.3% 3,452 100%
7/5 North Chungcheong 592 72.3% 152 18.6% 60 7.3% 15 1.8% 819 100%
9/5 Seoul 2,321 47.9% 1,668 34.5% 743 15.3% 109 2.3% 4,841 100%
Total 17,481 69.0% 4,694 18.3% 2,926 11.4% 608 2.4% 25,709 100%

Democratic Labor Party

Labor activist Kwon Young-ghil of the Democratic Labor Party was nominated for president.[3]

21 August - 7 September
Votes %
For Kwon Young-ghil 7,297 90.8
Against 735 9.2%
Total 8,032 100%
Registered voters/turnout 12,877 62.4%

Roh-Chung coalition

Chung Mong-joon, the 3-term independent congressman from Ulsan and son of Hyundai founder Chung Ju-yung, became so popular that he began appearing on polls for presidential election after he, as the president of the Korean Football Association, was credited for winning the right to host 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea.[4]

Chung officially launched his presidential campaign in September, and in many polls beat Roh and came close to beating Lee. Many Democratic politicians that weren't happy with Roh's nomination joined Chung's campaign. However, when it seemed clear that if both Roh and Chung ran, Lee would win easily. The two sides decided to combine forces, instead of competing against each other.

The two sides agreed on conducting two polls, each by different polling companies, where the winner would run as the unified candidate. The winner had to win both polls, or a second round had to occur.

So the two poll was conducted on 24 November, but only one validated. The other one was invalidated, as the two sides had agreed that any poll with Lee Hoi-chang polling less than 30.4% must be invalidated, since there could be a chance that Lee's supporters were attempting to manipulate the results by responding with an untrue answer.

The only poll that was validated was the one conducted by the Research and Research, and it was won by Roh.

Consequently, Chung withdrew his candidacy and endorsed Roh.[5]

24 November 2002
Candidate Research and Research Poll # of polls won
Roh 46.8% 1
Chung 42.2% 0
Lee 32.1% -

However, Chung later broke his pledge on the night before the election, when he felt that Roh broke the promise to include Chung in for policy decisions and surrounded himself only with Democrats.[6] Chung announced less than eight hours before the election that he was withdrawing his support for Roh and urged people to vote their conscience, but Roh won anyway.

Results
Candidate Party Votes % of votes
Roh Moo-hyun Millennium Democratic Party 12,014,277 48.91%
Lee Hoi-chang Grand National Party 11,443,297 46.59%
Kwon Young-ghil Democratic Labour Party 957,148 3.90%
Lee Han-dong One National People Unite(하나로국민연합) 74,027 0.3%
Kim Gil-soo Fatherland Defenders Party(호국당) 51,104 0.2%
Kim Yeong-Gyu Socialist Party 22,063 0.1%
Jang Se-dong Independent Forfeited -
Invalid ballots 223,047 0.6%
(Total electorate: 34,991,529 - Turnout rate: 70.8%) Total 24,784,963 100%
regions · provinces · cities
Roh Moo-hyun
MDP		 Lee Hoi-chang
GNP
Votes % Votes %
Sudogwon Seoul 2,792,957 (51.3％) 2,447,376 (44.96％)
Incheon 611,766 (49.83％) 547,205 (44.57％)
Gyeonggi 2,430,193 (50.65％) 2,120,191 (44.19％)
Gangwon 316,722 (41.51％) 400,405 (52.48％)
Chungcheong Daejeon 369,046 (55.09％) 226,760 (39.82％)
Chungcheongbuk 365,623 (50.42％) 311,044 (42.89％)
Chungcheongnam 474,531 (52.16％) 375,110 (41.23％)
Honam
（Jeolla）		 Gwangju 715,182 (95.18％) 26,869 (3.58％)
Jeollabuk 966,053 (91.59％) 65,334 (6.19％)
Jeollanam 1,070,506 (93.39％) 53,074 (4.63％)
Yeongnam
（Gyeongsang）		 Busan 587,946 (29.86％) 1,314,274 (66.75％)
Ulsan 178,584 (35.27％) 267,737 (52.88％)
Daegu 240,745 (18.68％) 1,002,164 (77.75％)
Gyeongsangbuk 311,358 (21.65％) 1,056,446 (73.47％)
Gyeongsangnam 434,642 (27.08％) 1,083,564 (67.52％)
Jeju 148,423 (56.05％) 105,744 (39.63％)

References
  1. "IFES Election Guide | Elections: South Korea Presidential Dec 19 2002". www.electionguide.org. Retrieved 2017-04-25.
  2. "donga.com[정치:한나라당 경선]". www.donga.com. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  3. ""세상 바꾸려 대통령 후보 나섰다'20억 기탁금' 목숨 걸고 싸울터"". 오마이뉴스. 2002-09-09. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  4. "[여론조사 자료실]민주 통합신당 대선후보 선호도 鄭42.1%-盧29.5%". news.donga.com (in Korean). 2002-09-08. Archived from the original on 2018-04-21. Retrieved 2018-04-20.
  5. nozzang (2008-06-13), 노무현 단일후보 확정 그 숨막히던 현장, retrieved 2018-04-20
  6. "정몽준, 자서전서 "노무현 전 대통령 지지 철회 이유는…"" (in Korean). Retrieved 2018-04-20.
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