Being Afraid of Both Election Laws and the Public

With Chuseok near at hand, politicians are highly tensed. The election law has been strengthened so that sending Chuseok gifts as before might be illegal. Voters are not excluded. Carelessly taking “a token of gratitude” from any politician might cost them the fine equivalent to 50 times the amount of the goods or luxurious favors they received, according to the recent revision of the election law last March. Before the revision, election-related activities were restrained to 180 days leading up to the Election Day, but the revision made such activities restrained to all the time. Now, politicians and voters are very confused about what kind of particular activities are illegal. Thus, many politicians already announced in advance that they would not send any gifts or greetings to anyone this Chuseok.

An assemblyman from the Grand National Party (GNP) received Chuseok gifts but sent them to orphanages and nursing homes in another district. If they were sent to his own district, he thought, it would be against the revised election law. However, goodwill charity is allowed for all politicians regardless of districts. It is legal to provide charities or donations to orphanages or similarly accommodating facilities and also to welfare facilities for the disabled, if founded by the government. But, donations to non-governmental facilities are against the law. The facilities include private sanitariums or nursing homes, as well as halls and homes for the elderly. Providing Chuseok gifts or foods to those facilities is not allowed.

Not only that, in disguise of a campaign to help unfortunate neighbors or consolation, sending Chuseok gifts or foods to constituents is also illegal. However, the law allows showing good faith to acquaintances, only if they are not from the politician’s district or have no relation to it.

On the occasion of Chuseok, hanging a placard or sending greeting notes to voters is illegal as well. Due to such complicated regulations, some politicians now use mobile phone message services to send Chuseok greetings. The election law allows electronic message services like e-mail and phone messaging to send Chuseok greetings only to acquaintances. No message to constituents or to party members without acquaintance is allowed. From September 25, the National Election Commission started this special crackdown on illegal activities by politicians and voters.

Min-Hyuk Park mhpark@donga.com