[Editorial] Uri Party Buys 2,000 Members for 100 Million Won

About 15 days ahead of the April National Assembly elections, breaches of election law are taking place in waves. As of March 26, the National Election Commission put the number of such irregularities at 2,086. Among them, 172 were so enormous that they would lead to the invalidation of the election of candidates. The figure is about three times as many as the same number during the latest elections. The Uri Party has the most violations with 593, followed by the Grand National Party with 456 and the Millennium Democratic Party with 293.

The number of irregularities could rise because the law and its enforcement have become much stricter. However, the fact that the governing party, which has publicly argued for “clean politics,” has the most irregularities is hardly acceptable for any reason. It is wondering how it will advocate reform.

The arrests of officials of the Uri Party’s Sokcho-Goseong-Yangyang district and an electoral campaigner were shocking because party officials paid the campaign worker 100 million won in kickbacks for his recruitment of 2,000 new party members. By day, they said they would end corrupt and old-guard politics, but at night they repeated obsolete wrongs by using a middleman to buy members. How should the masses judge their dualism?

The incident cannot be reduced to an isolated case in a district. The Uri Party has faced public criticism because it has fielded candidates who have been under investigation for irregularities or bribe allegations. It does not mind at all. The party went so far as to re-nominate some candidates for other districts where they have few connections as they threatened to leave the party following their failure to win nominations in the Seoul metropolitan area.

If all these are due to the fact that support for the Uri Party has risen as a result of the aftershock of the impeachment of President Roh Moo-hyun, it will be unfortunate. If the party stops thinking of public opinion and law because things have just gotten better, that will be troubling. The Uri Party should bear in mind that the recent improvement in its approval rating has not necessarily been due to improvement in its job performance.