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Lee Jae-myung claims 50% of election subsidies as funds are disbursed

Published: 13 May. 2025, 21:33

A large-scale placard is put up by the National Election Commission (NEC) in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on May 12. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The presidential candidates have now received their election subsidies, the National Election Commission announced Tuesday.

The commission has distributed 52.4 billion won ($37.8 million) in state election subsidies to the three political parties fielding candidates in the 21st presidential election: the Democratic Party (DP), the People Power Party (PPP) and the Reform Party.

The total subsidy amount — 52,383,253,020 won — was divided based on allocation laws. The DP's Lee Jae-myung received the largest share at 26.53 billion won, 50.65 percent of the amount, followed by the PPP's Kim Moon-soo at 24.29 billion won, or 46.36 percent. The Reform Party's Lee Jun-seok was allotted 1.57 billion won, 2.99 percent of the total.

No subsidies were granted to the Innovation Party of Cho Kuk, the Progressive Party, the Basic Income Party or the Social Democratic Party as they did not nominate presidential candidates.

Election subsidies are calculated by applying a monetary allocation per voter and multiplying that by the total number of individuals who cast ballots in the most recent general election, with the rate set at 1,183 won per person for this election.

Funds must be distributed within two days of the candidate registration deadline, in accordance with the subsidy allocation formula.

According to the law, 50 percent of the total is equally divided among parties that hold 20 or more seats in the National Assembly. Another 5 percent is set aside for parties with between five and 19 seats. An additional 2 percent is allocated to smaller parties that do not meet the seat threshold but have achieved a minimum share of the vote in past elections.

The remainder is split into two: half distributed proportionally according to the current seat count in the Assembly, and the other half based on the vote share from the 22nd general election held last April.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
BY HAN YOUNG-HYE [[email protected]]