Why Korea is breaking from its Wednesday tradition for the June 3 election

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Why Korea is breaking from its Wednesday tradition for the June 3 election

Published: 17 Apr. 2025, 07:00 Updated: 17 Apr. 2025, 16:55

CHO JUNG-WOO
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

A voter casts their ballot at a polling station in Seocho District, southern Seoul, during the general elections on April 10, 2024. [NEWS1]

In Korea, virtually all elections, whether nationwide or local, are held on Wednesdays. But the upcoming early presidential election, which is scheduled for Tuesday, June 3, breaks from tradition.

According to the Public Official Election Act, elections for president, lawmakers, local council members and local government heads are required to take place on Wednesdays.

Presidential elections are to be held on the first Wednesday falling within 70 days before the end of a president’s term. For parliamentary elections, the window is 50 days before the end of a lawmaker’s term and for local government heads and council members, it’s 30 days.

Even local by-elections follow the same rule. They are typically held on the first Wednesday of April for legislative seats and on the first Wednesday of April or October for vacant local government head positions.

If these designated election days — or the day before or after — fall on public holidays, the vote is pushed to the following Wednesday.

Early presidential elections, however, are an exception.

When a president is removed from office, an election must be held within 60 days of the vacancy, regardless of the weekday.

June 3 marks exactly 60 days since former President Yoon Suk Yeol’s official removal from office, making it the last day allowed under the law for the election to take place.

The same rule applied to the 2017 early presidential election following the impeachment of former President Park Geun-hye. That election was held on Tuesday, May 9.

Another exception to the Wednesday rule applies when local government heads are elected due to the “establishment, abolition, division or merger” of local jurisdictions. In such cases, the vote may be held on any day, as long as it falls within 60 days of the vacancy.

A poster for the Netflix series ″Wednesday″ (2022) [NETFLIX]

But why, of all days, does Korea insist on holding elections on Wednesdays?

According to the National Election Commission, Wednesday was selected to boost voter turnout. As election days — including presidential, general and local elections — are designated public holidays, holding them midweek discourages people from turning the day off into a long holiday by taking extra leave, which might reduce turnout.

The midweek mandate has been in place since March 2004.

Before then, elections were typically held on Thursdays. However, with the gradual shift to a five-day workweek, implemented in stages between 2004 and 2011, the voting day was moved to Wednesday.

The gradual shift from six-day to five-day workweek came following an amendment to the Labor Standards Act in 2003.

Between the enactment of the Public Official Election Act in 1994 and its amendment in 2003, all presidential and general elections were held on Thursdays.

Voters queue to cast their ballots during early voting for the 19th presidential election at a polling station at Seoul Station in downtown Seoul on May 4, 2017. [WOO SANG-JO]

However, regardless of the day elections are held, high-stakes elections — such as the 2017 early presidential election — have seen strong voter turnout, even when unconventionally held on a Tuesday.

The 2017 election — the first in Korean history held after a Constitutional Court ruling to remove a sitting president — recorded the highest voter turnout since the 15th presidential race in 1997, at 77.2 percent. Former President Moon Jae-in won the election, defeating conservative candidate Hong Joon-pyo by a 17-point margin.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO [[email protected]]