Election Law Violations Revealed

It has been revealed that one out of six local heads were prosecuted for violating election law in the May 31 local elections.

According to the the Prosecutor General’s Office yesterday, 522 successful candidates were booked for violating election law in the May 31 local elections. Among them, 233 were prosecuted and 109 were not. However, the rest of the 180 are undergoing investigations by the prosecutors. Therefore, it is expected that more elected candidates will have to stand before the judges.

Among the 233 prosecuted successful candidates, there is one governor, 39 local chiefs, 43 lawmakers of six largest cities, and 150 local lawmakers. In other words, one out of 16.6 elected candidates is under indictment. Especially, the rate is highest among local chiefs, which is one in 5.9 people.

Chungnam Provincial Governor Lee Wan-gu (Grand National Party), 56, was prosecuted in July and was fined 3,000,000 won for the premature election campaigning. Currently, he is waiting for his sentence by the court. Once an elected candidate is prosecuted for violating the election law and pays more than 1,000,000 won in fines, his/her election is invalidated.

There are some local heads’ elections that are being annulled by the court.

In August, the county headman of Geumsan, Chungnam, Park Dong-cheol (People First Party), was indicted for the premature election campaigning and paid 1,200,000 in fines. And in July, Han Taek-su (Independent), the county headman of Yangpyeong, Gyeonggi, was sentenced to be jailed for ten months and two years of probation.

In June, Kim Hyeon-pung (Grand National Party), the district leader of Gangbuk, Seoul, was fined 2,000,000 won. In addition, Han Chang-hee (Grand National Party), the mayor of Chungju, was fined 1,500,000 won.

Last month, there were numerous local heads indicted for violating the election law.

Lee Byung-hak (Democratic Party), the county headman of Buan, Jeonbuk was indicted for handing out 10,000,000 won to a leading member in the political party. Also, Oh Geun-seop (Independent), mayor of Yangsan, was charged for the premature election campaigning.

Kim Dae-su (Grand National Party), mayor of Samcheok, Gangwon was prosecuted for getting help from a university staff member he used to work with when he was the president of the university.

jefflee@donga.com