Page 43 - Election Book-ENG

2022 Presidential election

In May 2022, the conservative People Power Party’s Yoon
Suk-Yeol was elected president. Despite a sizeable lead in the
opinion polls before the election day and holding a comfortable
lead throughout election day, late arriving early vote tallies for
Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-Myung shrunk Yoon’s lead
to a miniscule 0.73% victory, equivalent to about 260,000 votes.

!is raised suspicions of election manipulation.

The chairman of the National Election Commission (NEC),
Noh Jung-Hee resigned shortly afterwards. His stated reason,
“poor election management”.

However, more suspect was the fact the Democratic Party
candidate, Lee Jae-Myung conceded the contest on election
night. This despite the razor thin vote difference that normally
would have a candidate, his party and his supporters demanding
a recount.

Curious behavior to say the least.

Post-election saw the same sorts of allegations raised as following
the 2020 National Assembly election.

!ese included: irregular and counterfeit ballots; unmarked and
suspiciously marked ballots; and statistically improbable election
results. The latter notably involving the early vote counts that,
as before, went in Democratic Party favor, and raised suspicions
that included electronic and computer manipulation.

Challenges Facing the South Korean Electoral System - 2024 43