Kim Taek-woo and Joo Soo-ho face off in the runoff for the 43rd president of the Korean Medical Association (KMA).

The election for the next president of the KMA, the nation’s largest doctors’ group representing about 140,000 physicians, has been narrowed down to a showdown between Kim, chief of the National Council of the Metropolitan and Provincial Medical Associations, and Joo, head of the Future Medical Forum and former KMA president.

According to the KMA Election Committee, Kim received 8,103 votes (27.66 percent), and Joo received 7,666 votes (26.17 percent) out of a total of 22,295 votes cast in the three-day election held from Thursday to Saturday.

Choi Anna, director of planning at the KMA, received 18.92 percent; Lee Dong-wook, president of the Gyeonggi-do Medical Association, 15.69 percent; and Kang Hee-kyung, professor at Seoul National University College of Medicine, 11.57 percent.

As no candidate received a majority of the votes, a runoff election between the first- and second-place finishers will determine the next president.

The election comes six months after former KMA President Lim Hyun-taek, who took office in May last year, was impeached amid controversy over his verbal abuse and miscommunication.

With the government-doctor conflict over the Yoon Suk Yeol administration’s increase of the medical school enrollment quota still unresolved a year later, the choice of the next KMA president has drawn attention from in and outside the medical community as it will have a significant impact on the future course of the protracted medical turmoil.

The two candidates, who have shown a hardline stance against the government, will face off in a two-day runoff on Tuesday and Wednesday for the medical community’s top job.

Speaking to reporters after the first round of ballot counting on Saturday afternoon, Kim and Joo made a last-ditch appeal for support.

“I would like to thank all members for voting in this critical time. As it is a by-election, it is a critical time for (the president-elect) to take office immediately, depending on the outcome,” Kim said. “I have made all preparations to take office immediately.”

Noting President Yoon's job suspension, Kim said, “All the healthcare policies that the president has been promoting should be suspended.”

He also called for a temporary halt to implementing the healthcare reform plan discussed by the Special Committee on Healthcare Reform. “I will be elected by all means to normalize healthcare, normalize education, and normalize the medical association,” Kim said.

Joo said, “I will keep in mind the wishes of the members shown by the results of the first round of voting, and I will try to bring the members together in the runoff. Please stay tuned.”

Joo emphasized that the issue of increasing the number of medical students for the classes of 2025 and 2026 is looming on the horizon, and it is time for the medical school to act.

“If elected, I will meet with the faculty organization and ask them to unify their actions. Then I will meet with the hospital presidents and medical directors to ask for their cooperation in faculty action,” Joo said.

The 43rd president-elect will be decided after 7 p.m. Wednesday. The winner will take office immediately and lead the medical association for the remainder of Lim's term, which runs through April 30, 2027.