A easy information to the 2025 presidential election
Getty PhotosSouth Korea will elect a brand new president on 3 June to switch Yoon Suk Yeol, who was faraway from workplace for putting the nation beneath martial legislation for six hours in December.
The winner can be tasked with managing the political and financial fallout of Yoon’s transfer, which plunged the nation in deep turmoil and highlighted deep divisions in society.
The election can be being held towards the backdrop of long-running challenges such because the menace from North Korea and addressing the world’s lowest delivery charge.
Right here is how the East Asian nation of about 52 million individuals will select its new chief for the following 5 years.
Why is South Korea holding a presidential election?
Yoon was speculated to function president till 2027, however his time period resulted in shame.
He shocked the nation by declaring martial legislation on 3 December, citing threats from “anti-state forces” and North Korea – nevertheless it quickly turned clear that he was spurred by his personal political troubles.
Every week later, he was impeached by parliament. On 4 April, a constitutional court docket upheld his impeachment and eliminated him from workplace completely, setting the stage for a snap presidential election inside 60 days, as required by legislation.
Within the 5 turbulent months since Yoon’s martial legislation, the nation has had three performing presidents, the newest being Lee Ju-ho, the labour minister who assumed the position one month earlier than the election.
Lee changed Prime Minister Han Duck Soo, who himself was impeached simply weeks after taking up from Yoon in an performing capability. Finance minister Choi Sang-mok was performing president earlier than Han was reinstated in March.
What are the large points in South Korea’s election?
Yoon’s martial legislation laid naked the deep political division between supporters of Yoon and his conservative Folks Energy Celebration (PPP), and people backing opposition chief Lee Jae-myung and the liberal Democratic Celebration.
It additionally shook public confidence within the economic system at a crucial time, when US President Donald Trump has unleashed his tariffs on America’s buying and selling companions, with South Korean items dealing with a 25% levy.
The brand new president will then have the speedy activity of addressing these issues.
However there are persistent challenges, akin to relations with North Korea. Whereas the beginning of 2025 been comparatively uneventful, the 12 months earlier than had seen heightened tensions as each side despatched balloons and drones carrying propaganda supplies throughout the border.
On a broader scale, the brand new chief should steadiness Seoul’s relations between its largest buying and selling accomplice, Beijing and its most essential safety ally, Washington.
There may be additionally the duty of arresting the nation’s declining delivery charge, which is among the many lowest on the planet.
In 2024, the nation’s fertility charge, or the typical variety of infants a lady is predicted to have in her lifetime, was at 0.75. Whereas it ticked up barely from the earlier 12 months, it stays far beneath the two.1 wanted to take care of the nation’s inhabitants of 51 million.
Who might the following South Korean president be?
Polls have positioned Lee Jae-myung of the liberal Democratic Celebration because the frontrunner amongst six candidates, adopted by Kim Moon-soo, the candidate for the conservative PPP.
Lee, who misplaced to Yoon by a razor-thin margin in 2022, is hailed by his supporters as a working class hero. He labored in a manufacturing facility earlier than he turned a human rights lawyer and politician. He has promised to ascertain a “Actual Republic of Korea” with jobs and a good society.
Kim, a former labour minister, has positioned himself as a president for the economic system, promising the creation of a business-friendly surroundings and job creation.
The opposite candidates are Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Celebration, Kwon Younger-guk of the Democratic Labor Celebration and two independents – Hwang Kyo-ahn and Tune Jin- ho.
For the primary time in 18 years, there is no such thing as a lady operating for president. The primary lady to run for president of the nation was Hong Suk-Ja in 1987, however she withdrew earlier than the vote. The election in 2012 noticed 4 feminine candidates stand.
When is election day and when are outcomes introduced?
The election is scheduled on 3 June and voting precincts can be open from 06:00 native time (22:00 GMT) to twenty:00. South Koreans abroad had been allowed to vote early from 20 to 25 Could.
Outcomes are anticipated to come back in after polls shut and the winner will possible be identified early the following day.
When Yoon defeated Lee in 2022, he was proclaimed the winner 9 hours after the shut of voting, or at 04:40 the morning after election day.
That was closest presidential contest within the nation’s historical past, which noticed Yoon win by a 0.73% distinction in votes.
The brand new president will take workplace instantly and in contrast to lots of his predecessors, won’t have the benefit of a proper transition from Yoon.
What is going to occur to impeached former president Yoon Suk Yeol?
Yoon faces trial for an rebel cost that stemmed from his martial legislation declaration.
In January this 12 months he turned South Korea’s first sitting president to be arrested after investigators scaled barricades and lower by barbed wire to take him into custody. He was relased from detention weeks afterward a technicality.
He was just lately indicted individually for abuse of energy.
Earlier than the election, Yoon stop his celebration in what analysts say is an try to shore up the probabilities of PPP commonplace bearer Kim Moon-soo.