Competition rate between candidates in same constituency records lowest in 39 years

A candidate registration table is set up at the Daegu Nam-gu Election Commission on the last day of candidate registration for the 22nd general election. Yonhap News Agency

Competition among candidates for constituencies in the upcoming general election on April 10 has reached its lowest level since the country's democratization. According to the National Election Commission on March 24, a total of 699 candidates applied to 254 districts in the general election, with a competition rate of 2.8 to 1. It is the lowest in 39 years since the rate of 2.4 to 1 in the 12th general election in 1985, which was before democratization. In the recent general elections, the competition rate for constituencies was 4.4 to 1 in the 21st election and 3.7 to 1 in the 20th.

The decline in the competition rate can be attributed to a decline in the number of third-party or independent candidates. The two major parties fielded candidates in almost every district. The ruling People's Power Party (PPP) has 254 candidates in every district, followed by the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) with 246.

None of the third parties have more than 50 candidates. The Reform Party has the most candidates with 43, followed by the New Future Party with 28, the Progressive Party with 21, the Green-Justice Party with 17, and the Liberty Unification Party with 11. There are 58 independents. The Rebuilding Korea Party, which has the highest approval rating among the third-party parties, did not field any candidates for a district. The Progressive Party has united with the DPK. As a result, there will be two-party competition for nearly half of the districts, which stood at 123, accounting for 48 percent of the total 254 districts.

The decline of the existing third-zone party is mentioned as the cause of the plunge in the number of third-party candidates. The Justice Party, which fielded dozens of candidates in the 21st general election, won only one seat in a constituency, and the party's status has steadily declined for four years, resulting in fielding 23 percent fewer candidates for constituencies compared to the previous election.

The number of voters supporting independents or moderates was not small. Some opinion polls show that voters supporting independents exceed 30 percent. However, their presence is not the same as their support for third parties. On top of that, the Reform Party and the New Future Party’s merger and division were added. The two parties failed to attract as many defectors from the two major parties as expected, and the Reform Party, which was confident of securing more than 20 seats in the early days of its founding, is idling at the approval rating of 3 to 5 percent.

The district with the most candidates in the upcoming election is Seoul's Jongno with a total of seven. The candidates include Choi Jae-hyung, the incumbent lawmaker of the PPP, Kwak Sang-eon of the DPK, who is also the son-in-law of the late President Roh Moo-hyun, and Geum Tae-seop of the Reform Party. None of the constituencies had any candidates or had a lone candidate. The lowest competition rate is 2 to 1, and two-party competition will be held in 123 districts.

By gender, there are 600 male candidates while 99 female candidates, showing the election is heavily skewed towards male. The average age of the candidates is 56.8 years old, two years older than that of the previous election (54.8 years old) four years ago. The oldest is 85-year-old Kim Il-yoon, an independent running in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, and the youngest is 28-year-old Woo Seo-young of the DPK in Miryang, Uiryeong, Haman, and Changnyeong, South Gyeongsang Province.

Thirty-eight parties have registered candidates for proportional representation vying for 46 seats in the National Assembly. The competition rate is 5.5 to 1, which is down from 6.6 to 1 in the previous 21st general election, and up from 3.4 to 1 in the 20th.

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.