Disputes over Illegal Election Campaigning Are Heating up

The ruling Millennium Democratic Party(MDP) and the opposition Grand National

Party(GNP) bashed one another, calling for an end to `corrupt election campaigning`.

The two major parties criticized each other, arguing that corruption in the campaigning

procedures went out of control.

∇GNP - "The corruption campaign and malicious propaganda by the MDP are reaching

out of control after it began losing ground in the campaign overall." said Lee sang-doek,

who is leading the whole campaign of the opposition party. "They must stop such a

hooligan-like malicious campaign, or they will have to pay the price."

"We will deeply probe on the incident where about 20 young men stormed into the GNP

convention in Yoeju, Kyoungi-do led by lawmaker Lee Gyu-tack last 7th. After the

elections, there will be a thorough investigation as to whether the MDP is responsible

for the incident." Lee said.

The GNP also said there was a report that the MDP was planning to give out

enormous amount of money and goods to win the votes around Korea`s soccer match

against the United States. In response to this allegation, the GNP announced its plan to

keep alert to prevent the movement from going further.

"We will closely watch their movement by creating a special task force which will form

several groups consisted of 7 to 8." A GNP official said. "They enjoy self-describing

themselves as the party of politics, but inside they are deeply involved in corruption."

∇ MDP - The ruling party revealed a document which included 19 cases regarding the

corrupt election campaign by the GNP. According to this document, some of them were

already reported by the media and some are still going through investigations by the

prosecution-led committee for fair elections.. Those cases included several candidates who gave money to high-ranking officials to win the local government elections in Kyoungsang province. The document also has a case where a GNP lawmaker was accused of receiving as many as 20 million won from a candidate in exchange for giving party tickets.

Meanwhile, the MDP reported 6 additional cases regarding the GNP`s illegal election

campaign on line, including a candidate in Kangwon province who faked his education

degrees on his website, and another candidate in Kyoungi province who began his cyber

election campaign before the election campaign is officially allowed.

The ruling party argued that "The GNP is doing whatever it takes to win the elections,

whether it is illegal or corrupt."

Hyung-gwon Pu bookum90@donga.com