The National Election Commission of the Republic of Korea (NEC) provided about 11.5 billion Korean won (approx. 9.9 million USD) of national current subsidies for the third quarter of 2021 to eight political parties on August 13.

Details of Subsidy Payments for the Third Quarter of 2021

Unit: Korean Won (USD)

* US dollar amount in parentheses are approximate.

* There are eleven Independent seats.

* Even though Minsaeng Party does not have any seats, 2% of the whole subsidy amount for this quarter is distributed to the party since it meets the requirement of the number of votes obtained by having 2% or more votes in the 21st National Assembly elections that a party is eligible for(Political Fund Act, Article 27 (2)).

National current subsidies are distributed as stipulated in Article 27 of the Political Fund Act. First of all, 50% of the total amount of subsidies available are equally divided between political parties that have a negotiation body made up of National Assembly members of the same political party according to the standards as of the date of distribution. Next, parties with between five and 20 seats receive 5% of the total funds divided among them.

In addition, 2% of the total shall be allocated to parties that have no seats or less than five seats but meet certain requirements, such as the number of votes in the most recent public official election.

After distributing based on the aforementioned criteria, half of the remaining subsidies are distributed to political parties represented in the National Assembly in proportion to the number of seats each party has. The other half is distributed in proportion to the number of votes obtained by the political parties in the 21st National Assembly elections.

The total amount of current subsidies available is calculated by multiplying the number of registered voters in the recent 21st National Assembly Elections by the subsidy unit price. Then it will be equally divided into quarters and distributed to parties on the 15th of February, May, August, and November (if those days fall on either Saturdays or holidays, then they shall be paid the day before).

The unit price of the national subsidies for this year is 1,052 won ($0.9 USD). This was calculated with the national subsidy unit price of 1,047 won ($0.89 USD) from the year of 2020 applied by the 2019 National Consumer Price Index (0.4%) that was announced by the Commissioner of Statistics Korea.