Candidate
Overview
Candidate (Korean: 후보자; 候補者) is a concept referring to a person or volunteer at a stage prior to a final decision in elections, hiring, screening, public contests, and similar processes. The most widely used context is elections, where it means a person who has run for public office to be chosen by voters. A candidate is distinguished from a confirmed elected official or appointee, and procedures, qualification requirements, and determination methods are defined differently by field.
Key content
Candidates in elections
In representative democracy, candidates are a key element that provides voters with choices. Relevant laws such as the Public Official Election Act regulate candidate registration, qualification requirements (age, eligibility for election, grounds for disqualification), deposits, and the period and methods of election campaigns. Representative procedures are as follows.
- Candidacy: The stage of announcing an intention to run as an individual or through nomination by a political party
- Registration: The stage of applying to the election commission for candidate registration and having requirements reviewed
- Assignment of symbols/numbers: Ballot symbols are determined according to party affiliation, registration order, and other factors
- Election campaign: During the statutory period after the public notice date, appeals for support are made in restricted ways
- Voting and counting: The elected person is confirmed through voters' choices
Candidate qualifications are expressed as eligibility for election, and requirements such as age, nationality, residence, and criminal record differ by country. In Korea, the standards differ by office, such as members of the National Assembly being 18 or older and the president being 40 or older.
Candidates in hiring and screening
Beyond elections, the word candidate is used throughout personnel and screening. In hiring, it means an applicant (candidate) who has passed document and interview stages and become subject to final review; the same concept applies to Nobel Prize candidates, candidates in various contests, and candidates for screening. In this case, candidates are essentially connected to the election context in that they are 'a list of possibilities not yet confirmed.'
Issues related to candidates
- Fairness: Criticism is raised that excessive registration qualifications, deposits, and campaign regulations become barriers to entry
- Vetting: Candidate vetting (vetting verification), such as assets, military service, and criminal record, is used as key material for voters' judgment
- Media exposure: As the weight of broadcast debates, opinion polls, and social media increases, the influence of name recognition on victory or defeat has expanded
- Representation of women and minorities: Attempts continue to increase the diversity of candidate composition through quotas or nomination rules
Recent trends
As of 2024–2025, the concept of candidates is changing in three directions. First, the spread of digital election campaigns. As short-form videos, live streams, podcasts, and similar formats have become established as official campaign channels, candidates' online presence directly affects victory or defeat. Second, the conflict between AI use and regulation. As virtual candidate images, voices, and policy summaries using generative AI increase, legislative discussions to regulate false information and deepfakes have become active in various countries. Third, the datafication of candidate vetting. As information on public officials' assets and conflicts of interest, records of pledge fulfillment, and similar data are disclosed as public data, the trend of voters directly cross-verifying has strengthened. In the hiring market as well, with the introduction of AI screening and competency-based evaluation, managing the 'candidate experience' has emerged as a major task for HR managers.
Related topics
- [[Election]]
- [[Nomination]]
- [[Eligibility for election]]
- [[Opinion poll]]
- [[Public Official Election Act]]