Table of Contents
Why does this election matter?
South Koreans go to the polls on April 10 to select a new 300-member National Assembly. The parliamentary elections are widely seen as a midterm referendum on President Yoon Suk Yeol. They will also serve as a vote of confidence on the opposition Democratic Party, which has held majority control in the Assembly for the past four years.
Mr. Yoon won the presidential election in March 2022 by a razor-thin margin, and three months later, his People Power Party won the most big-city mayor and provincial governor races. But two major handicaps have hobbled his presidency: his party’s lack of control in the single-chamber Assembly and Mr. Yoon’s low approval ratings.
An electoral victory by his party could add momentum to Mr. Yoon’s four major reform programs involving the country’s health care, education, labor and national pension systems, as well as his promise to abolish the nation’s ministry of gender equality. Mr. Yoon will also see it as lending political legitimacy to his policy of aligning South Korea more closely with the United States.
But if the opposition scores a decisive win, it will further weaken Mr. Yoon’s leadership and may turn him into an early lame duck, political analysts say.
What are the big election issues?
South Korea faces a host of issues with no easy solution: a slowing economy, runaway housing prices, a rapidly aging population, a widening income gap, a gender divide especially among its young generation and a growing nuclear and missile threat from North Korea.
But South Korea’s worsening political polarization means that practically every sensitive issue is seen through a partisan lens. And political analysts say that it also means that this election is run not on any sustained policy debate but more on stoking and playing to voters’ fears and resentments of the other side.
Surveys in recent weeks showed that a majority of South Koreans disapproved of Mr. Yoon’s performance, which has emerged as a key election issue. He was unpopular especially among voters in their 50s and younger. But the same surveys also found respondents distrustful of the opposition Democratic Party, with its leader, Lee Jae-myung, standing trial on bribery and other criminal charges.
Mr. Yoon’s party appeals to conservative voters by arguing that its election victory would propel his campaign to drive out what he calls corrupt “anti-state” progressives from the center of South Korean politics.
The liberal opposition’s main catchphrase is to “punish” the Yoon government for everything from rising consumer prices to its veto of a parliamentary bill that would have launched an independent investigation into allegations of corruption against the first lady, Kim Keon Hee.
How do they select the Assembly?
Of the 300 parliamentary seats up for grabs, 254 are elected through voting at as many electoral districts across the country. Those races will largely be a contest between the two main parties: Mr. Yoon’s People Power Party and the opposition Democratic Party. The other 46 seats, not attached to any voting districts, are distributed among smaller political parties, roughly according to the numbers of votes they win in a parallel nationwide polling.
Political parties did not finish nominating their candidates until less than a month before election day, giving voters little time to study them and the issues they stand for. But in South Korea, parliamentary elections are often decided more by the popularity of political parties and the sitting president than by the individual candidates.
When will we learn the result?
Voting begins at 6 a.m. local time, and, unless there’s an extremely tight race, it should be clear by early the next day which party has won.
Where can I find out more?
The President’s War Against ‘Fake News’ Raises Alarms in South Korea
The First Lady’s Dior Pouch Scandal Triggers Political Uproar
