Nomination corruption undermines democratic trust

Police on Feb. 5 sought arrest warrants for Rep. Kang Sun-woo and former Seoul city councilor Kim Kyung on allegations that they exchanged 100 million won for local election nominations. Whether the two ultimately face criminal punishment will be decided by the courts. But the implications of this case extend well beyond the judicial arena. The mere fact that money linked to nominations circulated within a major political party is unacceptable. More troubling still are indications that a sitting lawmaker intervened directly in the nomination process after receiving money. With the June 3 local elections approaching, it is difficult to avoid serious doubts about whether party nominations will be conducted transparently and fairly.

Kim sought the Democratic Party of Korea’s nomination in Seoul’s Gangseo district during the 2022 local elections, an area that falls within Kang’s constituency. Kim initially faced disqualification because he owned multiple homes. Despite this, Kang, who was serving on the party’s nomination committee at the time, strongly advocated on Kim’s behalf, leading to a single-candidate nomination. Rep. Kim Byung-gi, then secretary of the nomination committee, was reportedly informed of the alleged exchange of money but failed to take action. Those entrusted with enforcing fair and rigorous nomination procedures instead appear to have committed or tolerated misconduct.

This case cannot be dismissed as an isolated lapse in judgment. It exposes a deeper flaw that threatens to undermine trust in the nomination system itself. It also highlights a structural problem in which lawmakers wield excessive influence over the selection of local election candidates in their districts.

Nor is the problem confined to one party. The People Power Party has faced similar scandals. Former lawmakers Park Soon-ja and Ha Young-je last year received final prison sentences for accepting tens of millions of won from local election hopefuls in exchange for nominations during the 2022 local elections. Illicit nomination money is not a relic of the past. It is a form of corruption that persisted through the most recent local elections, cutting across party lines and eroding the foundations of democratic competition.

Both the ruling and opposition parties routinely appoint sitting lawmakers as heads of local party organizations. In practice, however, they have turned a blind eye to those lawmakers using the position to exert influence over nominations. This structural flaw has fostered an entrenched culture in which local election hopefuls quietly offer donations to curry favor with district lawmakers. As long as this system remains intact, nomination corruption will continue to resurface. Breaking the cycle requires more than rhetoric. Nomination reviews must be conducted transparently, and the criteria must be strictly objective, leaving no room for discretionary intervention by individual lawmakers.

Nomination corruption strikes at the core of democracy, warping voters’ choices before they ever reach the ballot box. For parties that receive hundreds of billions of won in public funding each year, allowing such behavior is nothing short of a dereliction of duty. Both the ruling and opposition parties must treat this election as a starting point for genuine reform. They must scrap closed-door nomination practices that protect party insiders and establish a credible, transparent process for choosing candidates who can truly represent and serve their communities.