[Politics, That Day...] Lee In-je vs Heo Kyung-young, The Result of the 0% Vote Share Pride Battle

2007 Presidential Election, 'Their Own League' of Minor Candidates Under 1%
Democratic Party's Lee In-je, Republican Party's Heo Kyung-young in a 'Neck-and-Neck Race in Seoul'... Heo Kyung-young Wins in Busan

[Asia Economy Reporter Ryu Jeong-min]

Editor's Note‘Politics, That Day…’ is a series that looks back on Korean politics through the ‘recollection of memories’ related to notable scenes, events, and figures that deserve attention.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

In presidential elections, there are candidates who receive less media spotlight. These are so-called ‘minor candidates.’ Some consider having their name on the presidential candidate poster a ‘family honor,’ while others run from a religious perspective. Most of them are far from winning.

The league played by minor candidates is generally ignored by the public but is a matter of pride for the candidates themselves. Especially when a politician whose name recognition rivals that of major party presidential candidates joins the competition among minor candidates, the election results become directly tied to issues of pride.

Such a situation occurred in the 2007 17th presidential election, where Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party won by a landslide. The runner-up was politician Chung Dong-young. Interestingly, Chung Dong-young ran not under the Democratic Party but as a candidate of the United Democratic New Party.

Looking back at the history of today’s Democratic Party, the United Democratic New Party can be considered part of the same faction. So, did the Democratic Party not field a candidate in the 2007 presidential election? The Democratic Party did field a candidate, but their candidate failed to surpass 1% of the vote.

This result fits the league played by candidates with 0% range vote shares. The low vote share is related to political realignments. During the Roh Moo-hyun administration, the Uri Party faded away while preparing for the birth of a new party, which after many twists and turns became the United Democratic New Party.

At that time, the Democratic Party, which was a parliamentary party, chose to run independently rather than join the United Democratic New Party. The 2007 Democratic Party presidential primary featured candidates with notable names such as Kim Min-seok, Lee In-je, Shin Guk-hwan, Jang Sang, and Cho Soon-hyung.

The final winner was Lee In-je, who earned another chance to run for president.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The 2007 presidential election was dominated by Lee Myung-bak of the Grand National Party, with attention focused on whether Chung Dong-young of the United Democratic New Party and Moon Guk-hyun of the Creative Korea Party would unify. The race included five candidates: independent dark horse Lee Hoi-chang and Kwon Young-gil of the Democratic Labor Party representing progressive parties.

Among the 10 candidates who ran in that election, only five, including Kwon Young-gil, surpassed 1% of the vote. The other five recorded vote shares in the 0% range. Among those with 0% vote shares was Lee In-je, the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate.

For Lee In-je, who once garnered nearly 5 million votes in a presidential election, this was a blow to his pride. Interestingly, among those in the 0% competition was a candidate who was not inferior in name recognition to prominent politicians.

He was Heo Kyung-young of the Economic Republican Party. Known to the public for his radical pledges and eccentric behavior, he frequently appeared in various media, building his recognition.

Both Democratic Party candidate Lee In-je and Economic Republican Party candidate Heo Kyung-young failed to surpass 1% of the vote. They ranked first and second among the 0% candidates. What was the final result?

In Seoul, known as the ‘heart of politics,’ Lee In-je received 0.45% of the vote, and Heo Kyung-young received 0.44%, a razor-thin margin. In fact, in Busan, Heo Kyung-young led with 0.41% over Lee In-je’s 0.26%.

The final vote shares were 0.68% for Lee In-je and 0.40% for Heo Kyung-young, a difference of 0.28 percentage points. Lee In-je’s strong performance in Gwangju and Jeonnam contributed to this. Had Lee In-je been outpolled by Heo Kyung-young nationwide, it might have created another record in Korean political history.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.