Average Candidate Has Spent 53 million Won for Campaign

As of 3:00 p.m. on April 14, nine hours before the deadline of the campaign for the National Assembly, the average candidate has spent 53 million won for his or her own campaign.

“As of 3:00 p.m. (on April 14), a total of 59.8 billion won has been spent for the electoral campaign,” the National Election Commission said after tallying the campaign expenses in which a total of 1,116 candidates voluntarily put up on a “political Web portal.”

The average is about 31.5 percent of the legal limit of 170 million won for a candidate running in an electoral district, raising speculation that some candidates under-reported their expenses.

Uri Party candidates spent a total of 18.8 billion won, or an individual average of 77 million won. Grand National Party candidates spent 15.1 billion won, or an average of 69 million won per person.

The Millennium Democratic Party spent 9.4 billion won covering campaign expenses, or an average of 55 million won per candidate. The United Liberal Democrats financed its campaign with 3.1 billion won. On average, a ULD candidate spent 29 million won. The Korea Democratic Labor Party spent 3.1 billion, or on average, 26 million won per candidate.

Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com