On 28 February 2007 the official census was published, identifying the number of eligible voters, with the electoral rolls compiled and published between 21 and 26 November, before being finalised on 12 December. Pre-registration of candidates began on 23 April, with 25–26 November as the dates to officially register.
Candidates
The elections were a three-way race between the ruling United New Democratic Party's Chung Dong-young, opposition Grand National Party's Lee Myung-bak, and conservative independent Lee Hoi-chang. Also in the race but polling less than 10% were former Yuhan KimberlyCEO Moon Kook-hyun and congressman Kwon Young-ghil from Ulsan.
An opinion poll was conducted on 2,400 eligible voters and 10,000 of those who signed up to vote in the primaries between 3 and 5 September; only the top five candidates were allowed to advance to the full primary elections. Despite qualifying for the full primary vote, Han Myeong-sook withdrew her bid for nomination and endorsed Lee Hae-chan before the primary races began. The primary races counted for 90% of the final result and the opinion poll 10%. At the UNDP National Convention, held on October 15, 2007, Chung was officially named the party's presidential nominee.
Former Gyeonggi Governor Sohn Hak-kyu sought to participate, but he later decided to instead run for the UNDP nomination, and failed. The GNP primary consisted of opinion polling and popular vote by pre-registered electors. The poll and the voting were all conducted on 19 August and the results were announced at the National Convention on 20 August, naming Lee Myung-bak as the official nominee. Because Lee won the race with a slight margin, there was controversy regarding the method primary election used. However, Park Geun-hye conceded her loss to Lee. Park ran again in 2012 and won the primary.
Lee Hoi-chang
and 2002 presidential candidate for GNP, Lee Hoi-chang had announced his candidacy on November 7, 2007 as an independent, not joining GNP primary.
Roh Hoe-chan, National Assemblyman as Proportional Representative
No candidate received a majority of the votes, so a second round of the presidential primary was scheduled from 10 to 15 September.
First round results by province
Creative Korea primary
, former CEO of , was elected as the official presidential candidate of the party on 4 November 2007, through mobile voting amongst party members.
Exit polls
An exit poll was announced at 18:00 on election day, at which point voting had finished. It predicted Lee Myung-bak had won an absolute majority.
Candidate
Prediction
Estimated %
Lee Myung-bak
Winner
50.3%
Chung Dong-young
2nd
26.0
Lee Hoi-chang
3rd
13.5
Results
By province
Other information
On April 7, 2011, a National Intelligence Service agent was guilty of investigating Lee Myung-bak's secret real estate-related information before the election. According to WikiLeaks, Yoo Chong-ha, the former co-chairman of Lee Myung-bak's presidential election campaign, requested to then American ambassador to South Korea, Alexander Vershbow, to delay the extraction of the main individual of the BBK embezzlement scandal, Christopher Kim, to Korea on the request to prevent spreading controversies related to Lee Myung-bak's involvement in the BBK embezzlement scandal during the election season.
