section_path: 2022 presidential election
section_name: 2022 presidential election
paragraph_text: 2022 presidential election
  
  Yoon had been considered a potential presidential candidate for the 2022 presidential election ever since the aftermath of the Cho Kuk controversies, appearing as a significant candidate in general election opinion polls since at least January 2020. In a January 2021 poll including all possible presidential candidates, Yoon led as the most favored with 30.4 percent of the vote, more than the individual supports for the ruling Democratic Party frontrunners Lee Jae-myung and Lee Nak-yon.
  
  On 4 March 2021, Yoon tendered his resignation as the prosecutor general, which was accepted by President Moon. On 29 June 2021, Yoon officially announced his candidacy in the 2022 presidential election. On 12 July, he registered with the National Election Commission as an independent candidate.
  
  On 30 July 2021, Yoon officially joined the conservative People Power Party (PPP), which was the main opposition party in South Korea. Prior to this, Yoon had been a political independent, although his popular support came primarily from conservatives. Yoon was welcomed into the PPP by Choi Jae-hyung, a fellow 2022 presidential candidate, in a small public ceremony at the PPP headquarters located in Yeouido, Seoul. Choi was the former head of the Board of Audit and Inspection and had also just recently joined the PPP, officially having become a member on 15 July. Yoon's welcoming ceremony into the People Power Party notably did not include recently elected party leader Lee Jun-seok, who had been outside of Seoul at the time.
  
  During the primary election period, Yoon came under criticism for several perceived gaffes and controversial statements. In July, Yoon advocated for a 120-hour work week while critiquing President Moon's policy of the 52-hour maximum work week. Yoon also advocated for deregulating food safety standards because, in his opinion, "poor people should be allowed to eat substandard food for lower prices", citing economist Milton Friedman 's 1980 book Free to Choose: A Personal Statement as the inspiration for the idea. In August, Yoon stated that South Korea's recent feminist movement was a significant contributing factor to the issue of the nation's low birth rates. Later that same week, Yoon claimed during an interview with Busan Ilbo that there was "basically no radiation leak" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster because "the reactors themselves didn't collapse".
  
  On 2 September 2021, news website Newsverse reported that during his time as prosecutor general, Yoon had allegedly ordered a senior prosecutor Son Jun-sung and politician Kim Woong to file politically motivated criminal complaints against Democratic Party politicians ahead of the 2020 legislative elections in an attempt to sway the elections. In response to the allegations, an internal investigatory probe was launched by the Supreme Prosecutor's Office, and an investigation was launched by the recently formed Corruption Investigation Office for High-ranking Officials (CIO). Yoon denied the allegations and reported informant Cho Sung-eun and Director of the National Intelligence Service Park Jie-won to the CIO.
  
  In early September, support for PPP primary contender Hong Joon-pyo, who had been the nominee for PPP predecessor Liberty Korea Party in the 2017 presidential election, rose sharply in polls, making Hong the most significant contender to Yoon since the beginning of the campaign cycle. A 6 September poll of contenders across all parties showed support for Hong at 13.6%, up from 4.2% a week earlier, behind Yoon who had support at 26.4%.
  
  During primary debates amongst PPP presidential candidates, Yoon appeared to have the hanja character for "king" written on his left palm, a shamanist talisman for good luck. Yoon's primary opponents, including Hong Joon-pyo and Yoo Seong-min, criticized Yoon for using shamanist practices and made comparisons to the Choi Soon-sil scandal. In response to the criticism, Yoon stated that "a supporter drew that as a message of support, encouraging me to be confident like a 'king' during the debate" and that he had forgotten to wash the mark off.
  
  In October 2021, Yoon made complimentary remarks about the former authoritarian military dictator of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan. The remarks came during a meeting with People Power Party officials in Busan, during which Yoon said that "many people still consider Chun as having done well in politics, except the military coup and the Gwangju Uprising", later adding that he believed even people in Honam, the geographic area including Gwangju, felt the same way. Chun Doo-hwan, a widely maligned figure in South Korea, was responsible for numerous human rights abuses, including the torture and killings of innocent civilians. Yoon apologized for these remarks. However, news media and members of the Democratic Party speculated that a picture he posted on Instagram and later deleted indicated that the apology was insincere. The photo was of him feeding an apple to his dog, and some observed that the Korean words for "apple" and "apology" (사과) are homonyms; however, Yoon later denied the alleged symbolism of the photo. Yoon again apologized for his remarks when he visited the May 18th National Cemetery in Gwangju on 10 November, although his visit was met by protesters.
  
  On 5 November 2021, Yoon officially won the nomination of the People Power Party for the 2022 presidential election. The win came after Yoon fought off a surge in support for rival candidate Hong Joon-pyo in the latter weeks of the primary. The nomination resulted from a four-day period of voting by party members and the general public. Yoon Suk Yeol won 47.85% of the votes, a total of 347,963 votes, and of the remaining candidates Hong Joon-pyo won 41.50% of the votes, Yoo Seong-min won 7.47% of the votes, and Won Hee-ryong won 3.17% of the votes.
  
  On 7 November 2021, Yoon stated that if he were elected president, he would pardon former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park Geun-hye, both of whom were serving lengthy prison sentences for corruption (Park Geun-hye was later pardoned by President Moon Jae-in on 24 December of that same year).
  
  Yoon narrowly won the 2022 presidential election that took place on 9 March 2022. Democratic Party candidate Lee Jae-myung conceded defeat in the early hours of the following day. Yoon won 48.56% of the votes, while Lee Jae-Myung won 47.83% of the vote. Yoon's presidential election victory was by the closest margin in South Korean history.