Yoo Ji-dam, chairman of the National Election Commission 15.1% of Candidates Paid Less Than W100,000 in Tax NEC Devises Catchy Election PR Strategies Candidate Registration Starts Wednesday for General Elections

Reaffirming the fact that the commission had ruled on the president’s violation of the election law during a plenary meeting, the NEC said, “This is what everybody knows.”

At a press conference on March 11, President Roh said, “I closely examined the ruling of the NEC. Many reports quoted it as a ‘warning’ to me but I don’t think it was a warning. In my opinion, it was just the expression of an opinion.” Citing the fact that the NEC sent different letters to President Roh and the anti-Roh Millennium Democratic Party, some suspect that the commission was trying to make a “double play.”

In answer to the criticism the NEC said, “The commission judged President Roh’s violation of his duty to political neutrality by a vote of six to two at its plenary session and we made it clear at a press conference right after the decision. We sent a different letter to President Roh from the one we sent to the MDP because he is the head of state, and we already explained to reporters that we agonized over the wording of the letter to the president.”

About its reply to the Constitutional Court that it has no opinion on the issue, the commission said, “The court asked us to give an opinion on the parliamentary impeachment of the president, not on whether or not he violated the election law. This is beyond the legal authority of the commission. We could not express an opinion on the impeachment itself.”

“We will continue to fully cooperate with any demands of the court to present related information on the president’s violation of the election law. We deeply regret the attitude of some people who are trying to use the decision-making process of the NEC for political purposes,” lamented an official of the NEC.

(Lee Myung-jin, mjlee@chosun.com )