Early presidential elections were held in South Korea on 9 May 2017 following the impeachment and removal of Park Geun-hye.^[1] The elections were conducted in a single round, on a first-past-the-post basis, and had originally been scheduled for 20 December 2017. However, they were brought forward after the decision of the Constitutional Court on 10 March 2017 to uphold the National Assembly's impeachment of Park. Following procedures set out in the Constitution of South Korea, Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn succeeded Park as the acting president. After Park was removed from office by the Constitutional Court's ruling, acting president Hwang announced he would not run for a term in his own right.^[2][3][4]

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2017 South Korean presidential election

← 2012 9 May 2017 2022 →
Turnout	77.23% (1.39)
Nominee Moon Jae-in Hong Jun-pyo Ahn Cheol-soo Party Democratic Liberty Korea People Popular vote 13,423,800 7,852,849 6,998,342 Percentage 41.09% 24.04% 21.42%   Nominee Yoo Seung-min Sim Sang-jung Party Bareun Justice Popular vote 2,208,771 2,017,458 Percentage 6.76% 6.17%
Results by municipal-level divisions Results by provincial-level divisions
President before election Hwang Kyo-ahn Acting Independent Elected President Moon Jae-in Democratic

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• Moon Jae-in becomes President of South Korea

Opinion polling before April consistently placed the Democratic Party's candidate, Moon Jae-in, runner-up in the 2012 election, as the front-runner. Second place in the opinion polls was initially held by former UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who declined to run in February, followed by Ahn Hee-jung, whilst he lost the Democratic primaries to Moon. Support for People Party founder Ahn Cheol-soo then surged, threatening Moon's lead in the polls throughout early April, before descending to approximately equal that of Liberty Korea Party's candidate, Hong Jun-pyo, in final polls.

Moon won the election with 41 percent of the vote, defeating his nearest opponent, Hong, by a nearly 2-to-1 margin. Under the Constitution of South Korea, if a president dies, resigns, or is removed by impeachment, a new election must take place within 60 days. As a result, unlike previous presidential elections, president-elect Moon took office immediately upon the confirmation of the result by the National Election Commission, with the inauguration at the National Assembly on the same day.

Park Geun-hye of the conservative Saenuri Party (renamed just prior to the election in February 2017 as the Liberty Korea Party) won the previous presidential election in 2012, succeeding Lee Myung-bak of the same party.

The Saenuri Party lost the parliamentary election in April 2016, with opposition parties including liberal Democratic Party of Korea and People Party winning a majority in the National Assembly. Commentators described the result as leaving Park a lame duck president, as she may not run again under South Korea's one-term presidency rule.^[5][6][7] and the Nikkei Asian Review noted that, in the wake of her "crushing defeat", "rivals sense a prime opportunity to complete the power shift in the December 2017 presidential vote".^[5] The Korea Times stated: "The drama of deals and power struggles for next year's election has already begun."^[8]

The six parties represented in the National Assembly are the social liberal Democratic Party of Korea, the conservative Liberty Korea Party, the centrist People Party, the center-right Bareun Party, the progressive Justice Party, and pro-Park Geun-hye conservative Saenuri Party.

Ballot numbers for party candidates were given according to the candidate's party seat distribution in the National Assembly. Ballot numbers for independent and minor party candidates were determined through a random lottery by the National Election Commission.

A record number of 15 candidates registered, out of which two withdrew before election day.

• Hwang Kyo-ahn, acting President (2016–2017), Prime Minister (2015–2017), former Minister of Justice (2013–15) announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 15 March 2017.^[2]
• Kim Boo-kyum, member of the National Assembly for Daegu (2016–present), former member for Gunpo (2000–12),^[5][12] announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 7 February 2017.^[24]
• Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations (2007–2016), was considering running as a non-partisan candidate but announced on 1 February 2017 that he would not be running for the presidency.^{[25][26][5][8]}
• Park Won-soon, Mayor of Seoul (2011–present), announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 26 January 2017.^[27]
• Oh Se-hoon, former Mayor of Seoul (2006–2011), announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 13 January 2017.^[28]
• Kim Moo-sung, former Chairman of the Saenuri Party (2014–2016), announced that he would not be running for the presidency on 24 November 2016.^[29]

Opinion polls throughout 2017 showed Moon Jae-in as the leading candidate. Polls prior to the conclusion of the Democratic primary (which included his rivals to the nomination) had Moon at around 30% support, and polls conducted after he had won the primary showed generally consistent results of around 40% by April.

Polling showed a significant decline in support for Ahn Cheol-soo during April. While at the beginning of the month he was polling close to Moon, and even exceeded him in a few polls, by May his support had dropped to around 20%. This decline coincided with rising support for Hong Jun-pyo. By the time of the polling blackout period began on 3 May, Ahn and Hong were recording similar levels of support.

Moon Jae-in of the Democratic Party of Korea won the plurality of the votes (41.09% in contrast to 24.04% won by his closest opponent Hong Jun-pyo), thus winning this election. He assumed the office as the President of South Korea immediately upon the confirmation of the results at 8:09 am on 10 May 2017 (Local time) and was inaugurated in the National Assembly at afternoon on the same day.^[36]

Moon's 17.1% margin of victory is the largest percentage margin for any liberal candidate since the beginning of free and fair direct elections in 1987.