This guaranteed the ruling liberal alliance an absolute majority in the legislative chamber, and the three-fifths super-majority required to fast-track its procedures.

[3] To win seats through proportional representation, parties needed to pass an election threshold of either 5 single-member districts or 3% of the total list vote.

[4] An election reform bill was introduced in February 2019, which would change the allocation of part of PR seats with an additional member system.

[5] The legislative process utilised the 85th Article of the National Assembly law, called the 'Fasttrack' system, which does not require agreement between all parties.

[6] The decision by Sohn Hak-kyu, leader of the Bareunmirae, to approve the Fasttrack, and his dismissal of his fellow standing committee member Oh Shin-hwan, stirred legal controversy.

[9] The Liberty Korea Party physically disrupted the National Assembly Secretariat in April 2019, to interrupt the Fastrack legal maneuver.

[14] [needs update] The bill was passed on 27 December 2019 despite physical obstruction in the Assembly voting area by the Liberty Korea Party.

[19] Eligible voters were required to be registered and at least 18 years old on the day of the election,[20] and to show an approved form of identification at the polling place.

[27] The country had introduced one of the world's most comprehensive programmes of COVID-19 testing, contact tracing and quarantine of suspected cases.

[28] As a result, the case fatality rate in South Korea was 1.95%, lower than the global average of 4.34%,[29] and the country avoided widespread lockdowns that were implemented elsewhere.

Voters were required to wear face masks and stay at least 1 metre (3 ft) apart when queueing or casting their votes.

[26][27] Before entering the polling station, each voter was checked for fever using a thermometer, required to use hand sanitiser, and issued with disposable plastic gloves.

[27][26] About 26% of votes were cast in advance, either by post or in special quarantine polling stations which operated on 10 & 11 April.

[17] Before the outbreak of the pandemic, the Democratic Party had been expected to struggle in the election: opinion polls in 2019 had predicted it would win 37–41% of the constituency votes.

The government's response to the outbreak was praised by the World Health Organization and received widespread support in South Korea.

[49] The August protest resulted in a sharp rise of COVID-19 infection in South Korea over the August to September period, which caused the Democratic Party to call for the arrest of Jeon Kwang-hoon, a candidate for proportional representation under the Christian Liberty Unification Party, who had been its organizer.