19th Presidential Election – Election Debates in Korea

Now the full election schedule has been set and the parties are embarking on their primary elections, attention will soon turn to probably the most watched elements of presidential elections in South Korea – the debates. As in many other countries around the world, televised debates between presidential candidates are a great opportunity for voters to ask the questions that are most important to them and directly compare the answers from each candidate.  Given the importance of these debates, we will look at how many there are, how they are organized, who participates and what their format is.

The most important part to note is that all forms of election-related debates in South Korea are organized and administered by the National Election Broadcasting Debate Commission (NEBDC). The NEBDC was created in 2004 to manage televised debates in a fair and neutral manner and is under the auspices of the National Election Commission (NEC). The NEBDC receives input from academia, the media and debate experts to decide the format of the debates and ensures they are broadcast on major TV channels at appropriate times to allow the most people possible to watch them.

The first debate during the 18th presidential elections

The NEBDC has various important decisions to make in the run-up to presidential debates. They decide on how many debates there will be and the topics each will cover, where the debate will be broadcast, the length and format of the debates and finally who is invited to participate. Each of these decisions have a major impact on the candidates and therefore are always controversial, but being under the control of the NEC allows the NEBDC to make neutral decisions without being influenced by the candidates and political parties themselves.

The Public Official Election Act begins by setting out the minimum number of presidential debates in Article 82.2.1, where it is outlined that the NEBDC must organize at least three debates with at least one candidate during a presidential election period. Candidates that receive an invitation to the day are decided by the NEBDC based on a set of simple criteria. Invited candidates must meet at least one of three minimum requirements to take part

1. The party that nominated the candidate has at least five seats in the National Assembly.
2. The party that nominated the candidate received at least 3% of valid votes in the last regular end of term of office election(s) for public officials
3. The candidate averages at least 5% support in election polls by a selected group of major polling organizations in a set period before the first debate.

This allows for a broad range of candidates to participate in the debate while at the same time ensuring that there are not an overly large number of candidates who do not have a at least a reasonable level of public support.

Candidates before the 18th presidential elections
second debate

Last presidential election back in 2012, the minimum three debates were held during the 22 day campaign period, with the first two debates including three candidates, before one candidate withdrew from the race, leaving just two candidates for the final debate. They represented the two main parties at the time, with Moon Jae-in representing the Minjoo Party and Park Geun-hye, who went on to become President, representing the Saenuri Party.

It is likely that this election will see a significant change in the number of candidates. Currently, five parties have at least five seats in the National Assembly and/or received at least 3% of votes in last year’s National Assembly election, meaning their candidates are all guaranteed to be invited onto the debate stage should they wish to participate. This does not include other independent candidates who may register and meet the third requirement that would allow them to be invited to the three debates. This raises the prospect of this year’s presidential election including some of the largest debates in the history of presidential elections in South Korea.

The topics and timings for this year’s debates have also been set since the announcement of the election calendar. Presidential debates in Korea always begin after the candidate registration period, which this year is April 15 and 16 and are held during the campaign period, which this year runs from April 17 until the day before the election, May 8. All the debates will be shown on two of the largest TV terrestrial TV channels in Korea, KBS and MBC, and will be viewable online. The topics also follow the trend of previous election, splitting politics, the economy and society into three separate debates. The schedule is as follows:

Date	Topic
Sunday April 23 (8pm to 10pm)	Political Issues
Friday April 28 (8pm to 10pm)	Economic Issues
Tuesday May 2 (8pm to 10pm)	Societal Issues

In the interest of transparency and to make sure questions that people want answered are put to the candidates, the NEBDC takes question submissions from the public on its website or by mobile, mail or fax. Anybody may submit a question, and the most commonly submitted questions will be asked during the debate. For details on how you can do that for this year, you can go to the website (www.debates.go.kr) and submissions will be taken from March 22 to April 22.

Promotional poster encouraging Koreans to
submit questions for the debates

To ensure the debates are fair and balanced, the NEBDC also takes applications for TV debate monitors, who observe the whole process of the debate. Applications are open to anybody and the deadline in April 7. You can find all the details on how to apply here. In addition, the NEBDC will be taking feedback on its website from viewers in order to improve its work.

The presidential debate system is designed to ensure candidates compete on their policies and experiences and make the candidates responsive to the citizens concerns. The NEBDC and us here at the NEC hope all Koreans engage, submit a question and tune into the debate. 

Author: Luke Butcher

Administration and International Affairs Division