10 interesting things about the Korean presidential election

(Baonghean.vn) - This year's South Korean presidential election takes place amid heightened tensions with North Korea and a rapidly escalating Pyongyang-Washington confrontation. Here are some facts about the South Korean presidential election.

1. Mr. Moon Jae In won the election on May 9, 2017 as the 11th president of South Korea and his term is the 19th presidential term since the country's founding in 1948.

Mr. Moon Jae In declared victory in Seoul on the evening of May 9. Photo: Reuters

2The May 9, 2017 election marked the first presidential election after the removal and impeachment of a president in South Korea.

3. Initially, 19 people declared their candidacy and registered their documents with the National Election Commission (NEC). However, only 15 people officially registered and in the end, only 13 candidates remained for the official vote on May 9, 2017.

4The election is estimated to have cost 311 billion won ($274 million) in taxpayer money; the NEC said it spent 180 billion won on its own operations.

In addition, the election support funds of five political parties with seats in the National Assembly also spent 42.1 billion won on the activities of their candidates.

Under South Korean law, the election watchdog is expected to pay an additional 88.9 billion won to all presidential candidates who secure 10 percent or more of the vote.

South Koreans vote for a new president on May 9. Photo: Reuters

5. Each presidential candidate may have spent up to 50.9 billion won on the campaign. The NEC will refund the entire amount to candidates who win 15 percent or more of the vote.

Those who win between 10% and 15% of the vote will be reimbursed half of their actual campaign expenses.

6.There are 42,479,710 eligible voters in South Korea, accounting for 82% of the total population of 51,716,959. This is the largest number of voters in any election in South Korea to date. This is also the first presidential election in which voters are allowed to cast early ballots.

7. In addition, there were 1.97 million Koreans living abroad who were eligible to vote. Of these, 221,981 actually voted, up 40.3 percent from the 2012 presidential election.

Young voters with an image of Democratic Party of Korea candidate Moon Jae In, during an election campaign in Daegu, May 8.- Photo: Reuters

8There are 42.4 million ballots printed for this presidential election. When stacked, they are 4.248 meters high.

9A total of 485,700 people were mobilized to participate in election-related work, with 75,000 of them counting ballots.

10. Mr. Moon Jae In won the election on May 9, 2017, becoming the president-elect in the shortest time in Korean history, because he will take office between 8am and 10am today (May 10). The average vote counting time in the two previous presidential elections was 4 hours and 40 minutes.

Kim Ngoc

(Synthetic)