Candidate Nominations That Bypass Proper Procedures Should Be Invalidated

A court has cancelled the decision of a party because the party had decided on a candidate who has not even applied for a candidate nomination, and had not abided by party ordinances during the procedure of nomination for the upcoming April 15 general election.

On March 26, the 51st civil affairs department of the southern Seoul district court disclosed that it had accepted a petition for making a provisional disposition submitted by Roh Young-chul, 49, who was left out of the candidate nomination in Ansan District, in order to prevent the Millennium Democratic Party from making a further candidate nomination procedure.

On the document of final decision, the court disclosed that “in accordance with the constitution and party law, a party should be fair when it recommends its candidate to the public. In cases of the candidate nomination violating this rule, we cannot admit its validity.”

The court added that “according to the MDP’s ordinance, a candidate for National Parliament should be selected through a public survey or a secret vote, and the applicants for the candidate seat should apply for a party recommendation. The MDP ignored this rule.”

Early of this month, when the MDP recommended lawyer Choi In-ho, 43, as its candidate for the general election, someone who had not applied for the candidate recommendation and who had not even undergone the process of being voted in, Roh filed a petition to the court, stating, “The Recommendation is not valid because it has not gone through the democratic formalities.”

In 2000, the southern Seoul district court accepted a petition, which was submitted by Ham Woon-kyung, one of the current chief executives of the Open Uri Party, against Congressman Kang Hyun-wook that was aimed at canceling the candidate nomination, stating, “The party chairman’s arbitrary decision in candidate recommendation can be regarded as a violation of the democratic procedure based on the constitution.”

As for the decision, the MDP has disclosed that “according to the decision of the court on March 24, we held a central executive committee meeting and decided on Choi again as our candidate in the Ansan district through a lawful process. It is no longer a problem.”

Jae-Dong Yu jarrett@donga.com