After discussing a potential merger for some time,[4][5] Ahn withdrew his campaign on 3 March, 6 days before the election, and endorsed Yoon.

[6] In the closest presidential election in South Korean history, Yoon won the most overall votes and the key area of Seoul, but lost in Gyeonggi and Incheon.

In addition, this was the country's first ever direct presidential election in which the national winner failed to secure Jeju Province, a traditional bellwether region.

[8] After three years in office, Moon's position was strengthened by his party's victory in the 2020 legislative election, which gave them an absolute majority of 180 out of 300 seats in the National Assembly.

[10][11] The incumbent administration was blamed for the housing crisis in Seoul which affected mostly younger citizens in their 20s and was rooted as the main cause of the Democrats' defeat, along with antifeminist sentiment among young male voters.

Lee's leadership campaign focused on young people and a big tent approach to the electorate, which was seen as a generational shift in South Korean politics.

[22] Gyeonggi Governor Lee Jae-Myung, who ran a left-wing populist campaign for president in 2017 while Mayor of Seongnam, emerged as a popular alternative bolstered by a well-received response to the COVID-19 pandemic and his proposal for a universal basic income.

[26] The calls to delay the primary are seen to be attempts to prevent frontrunner Lee Jae-myung from getting the nomination, as he is the most preferred candidate among the public and the party.

[26] The timetable for the process was as follows:[26] On 19 July, the party announced a delay in the final selection of candidates to mid-October due to an upsurge in COVID-19 cases in South Korea.

[64] However, his high-profile defeat in the 2020 South Korean legislative election in the crucial Jongno district by Democratic 2022 presidential candidate and former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon obliterated his standing in national polling.

[65] Representative Hong Jun-pyo, the conservative opponent of Moon in 2017, sought the PPP nomination again for 2022, coming in a close second place.

[66] Former National Assembly member Yoo Seong-min, one of the most prominent conservative opponents of Park Geun-hye and a co-founder of the breakaway Bareun Party in 2016, announced his candidacy in May 2020.

[86] Ahn, a former medical doctor, software engineer and National Assembly member who is known for his centrist views, is considered a possible candidate following his performance in the 2017 presidential election.

[86] These negotiations ended unsuccessfully on 16 August due to disagreements on party-level issues such as proposed changes to the PPP's name and method of picking a 2022 candidate.

It is the most recent party founded by centrist politician Ahn Cheol-soo, a former medical doctor and software executive who ran for president in the 2012 and 2017 presidential elections and emerged at various points as a possible winning contender.

[106] According to a Gallup poll in January 2022, voters main priorities were solving real estate issues, economic recovery and response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

[citation needed] A Voice of America article reported that South Korea's lax media editorial standards was responsible for playing a role in allowing unsubstantiated allegations being spread.

[citation needed] Yoon's camp most notably recruited Shin Ji-ye, a two time candidate for Seoul Mayor in 2018 under the Green Party and again in 2021 as an independent.

Shin stated, "(Yoon) pledged to resolve violence against women, address the climate crisis and create a Republic of Korea that overcomes (the division of) left and right and moves forward, so I decided to take part.

[122] On 3 January 2022, after only 14 days, Shin Ji-ye resigned from her position as senior vice-chair of the New Generation Policy Committee, citing conflicts with Lee Jun-seok and plummeting poll numbers for Yoon Suk-yeol.

Lee resigned due to Yoon's wife's comments about the MeToo movement during an 8-hour long phone interview with TV broadcaster MBC's investigative news show Straight, in which she mocked victims of sexual assault.

[133] On 12 January 2022, The Justice Party candidate, Sim Sang-jung suspended campaign activities and went into seclusion amid low ratings, to craft "reform plans".

[138] On 20 February 2022, Ahn clarified that there won't be further negotiations over unification with Yoon Suk-yeol, a week after he proposed a unified opposition campaign through opinion polls that ask who will be more suitable for the presidency and to defeat Lee Jae-myung, the nominee of the governing Democratic Party.

[citation needed] On the morning of 3 March, Ahn and Yoon made a joint statement that the two candidates decided to join forces to change the government.

[141] On 7 March 2022, the Democratic Party president Song Young-gil was attacked while campaigning for the presidential candidate, Lee Jae-myung, in Sinchon.

[144][145] News1 reported that the incident is reminiscent of the 2006 local elections, when the then–Grand National Party (GNP) president Park Geun-hye was stabbed while campaigning.

[146] Based on this incident, the newspaper also analysed that the attack against Song could possibly bring a positive consequence to the Democratic Party and Lee Jae-myung.

The pandemic had reached record levels of daily infections in South Korea around the time of the election amidst the arrival of the transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant.

[156] Lee won Jeju Island, Incheon and Gyeonggi Province (the most populous province in South Korea), where he was a former governor; however, the housing crisis in Seoul swung the city and its suburbs to the conservative Yoon with a 310,000 vote margin (previously, liberal Moon Jae-in won Seoul twice in his two campaigns in 2012 and 2017).

The incumbent liberals' failure to provide high-quality housing at affordable prices, double standards in the government's anti-corruption campaign, and limited success in achieving promised reforms to social policy despite an overwhelming majority in the National Assembly, and failure to nurture new political talents unlike the PPP were reasons cited for the defeat of the Democrats.