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As the general election campaign approaches its middle phase, corruption appears to be getting serious, and with the authorities strongly cracking down on illegal electioneering, a rush of special elections is expected as election victories are annulled due to election law violations.
Police said Thursday; "We've booked 1,546 people for campaign law violations, and have prosecuted 399 of them, including the 180 we've incarcerated... This is close to twice the number of cases exposed during the same period in 2000 general election." Of the people currently being investigated by prosecutors for election law violations, 95 of them are candidates, and six of them have already been put in prison. About half the candidates under investigation are accused of violations -- such as providing valuables and entertainment to people they shouldn't have -- that carry with them the likelihood of electoral disqualification.
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GNP head Park Geun-hye shakes hands with voters while electioneering at Macheon market in Songpa-gu, Seoul.
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The National Election Committee, too, has filed with the prosecutors complaints against 30 candidates. 22 of those cases involve providing goods, money and/or entertainment to voters, with the illegal funds given out ranging from the hundreds of thousands of won into the millions.
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Uri Party head Chung Dong-young makes a speech supporting his party candidates at Yeongdong market in Paldang, Suweon, in Gyeonggido.
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An official at the prosecutors office said, "Of the candidates being investigated, a fair number of them are ahead in the opinion polls, and are likely to win their respective races... We'll have to wait for court rulings, but it appears the number of cases in which electoral disqualifications will be handed out will be much greater than that of the previous general election."
In particular, under the new election laws established before this general election, candidates found guilty of election law violations drawing more than W1 million in fines are disqualified. Moreover, if a candidate's spouse or campaign accountant is found guilty of violations punishable by W3 million in fines, the candidate can be disqualified (the previous law mandated disqualification only if the offense was punishable by imprisonment). With this in mind, a significant number of election disqualifications are expected. Of the 243 seats of for grabs, officials from all parties are predicting, at the very least, 20~30 election annulments, and at the most, 50~60. During the 16th general election of 2000, 10 election victories were annulled.
(Lee Myeong-jin, mjlee@chosun.com )
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