Corruption mars MDP supreme council race

With the national convention of the ruling Millennium Democratic Party to elect its supreme council members imminent, there have been successive allegations about candidates offering favors and illegally distributing money to gain votes. Rep. Ahn Dong-Sun, a candidate for a supreme council post, claimed during a party caucus on Friday that a certain candidate treated 200 convention delegates to a sumptuous dinner. This is the first time that a concrete case of bribery was alleged in an official meeting. However, Kim Joong-Kwon, the candidate suspected of having offered the dinner to the voters, refuted Ahn`s allegation, saying there was nothing wrong with him having a meal with 50 delegates from his local chapter who attended his stumping rally in his capacity as chapter chairman.

As the controversy over the alleged attempt to buy off voters escalated to a ¡°war of exposure," candidates¡¯ campaign spending is again drawing scrutiny. Most observers say the average candidate`s campaign expenses exceed 100 million won, including about 50 million won for telephone campaigning and postal materials for 9,000 convention delegates, as well as about 30 million won for the rental of a campaign office. Each candidate also has a chief organizer at each major base such as the nation`s 16 metropolitan cities and provincial capital cities, and these costs at least one hundred million won, according to party sources. Furthermore, in the cases of some candidates who have one chief campaigner at each of the party`s local chapters, expenses are expected to double to more than 200 million won. Most candidates insist that they make use of volunteer campaigners, but it is hard to accept these claims at face value.