Since the establishment of the First Republic in 1948, there have been 22 elections for president of South Korea (including the March 1960 election, whose results were invalidated after the April Revolution).
Prior to the Presidential Election Act of 1987, the elections were indirect. Since 1987, the president is elected directly by the public using plurality-with-primaries in a single, non-renewable five-year term.
The presidential election rules are defined by the South Korean Constitution and the Public Official Election Act.
The election campaign period, as set by the Election Law, is short â 23 days. According to the book Internet Election Campaigns in the United States, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the election campaign periods in Korea (23 days for presidential elections and 14 days for National Assembly elections) were made intentionally short in order to "prevent excessive campaign spending for long-running election campaigns and harmful effects from overheated elections", but, on the downside, "this works against new candidates who are not well known".
The president is elected by direct popular vote, It is conducted in a single round on a first-past-the-post basis.
Winning party ideology: