Washington Correspondent
The main opposition People Power Party (PPP) won crucial by-elections in Seoul and South Korea’s second-largest city of Busan on Wednesday. Former Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon from the PPP won with 57.5 percent and his ruling Democratic Party (DP) rival Park Young-sun took 39.18 percent in the Seoul mayoral election. In Busan, PPP candidate Park Heong-joon won with 62.67 percent, beating the DP’s Kim Young-choon who took 34.42 percent of the vote.
One of the key issues surrounding this year’s by-elections was whether the National Election Commission (NEC) was administering the elections in a neutral and unbiased manner as required. This has been an issue throughout the election campaign (https://onekoreanetwork.com/2021/04/07/biased-national-election-commission-decisions-raise-questions-in-the-run-up-to-seoul-and-busan-by-elections/), and the NEC’s decision to place a public notice about Oh’s tax-related issue at every polling station on election day was yet another controversial move.
The notice, titled “Public Notice on Candidate’s Information Released to Public,” said Oh’s wife Song Hyun-ok omitted information related to tax payment and failure to pay taxes. According to the NEC, Song paid 119,979,000 won ($107,268) in taxes during the past five years but reported that she paid 119,677,000 won, or 300,200 won less, according to the NEC-approved notice placed at polling sites.
The PPP complained that the NEC was misleading voters to believe that Oh’s family has tax issues and was trying to embarrass him during the election day. Members from the PPP visited the NEC’s office in Gwacheon to raise the issue on Wednesday. “Oh Se-hoon paid more in tax than the amount previously reported, but the NEC used malicious terms like ‘omitted’ and is confusing voters,” they said. “It appears that the NEC played a role in opposing Oh’s election campaign, and we asked Cho Hae-ju, standing commissioner of the NEC, for an apology.”
The PPP released another statement and argued that the NEC was acting like a partner of the DP. “Even though they paid more in taxes, the NEC used the term ‘omitted’ to create confusion among voters,” the statement read. “It is almost the same as attempted election fraud.” It added that “it is confirmed that the NEC is the Democratic Party’s election intervention commission instead of the election management body.” The PPP also pointed out that the NEC’s review process of Oh’s financial information ended a day before the election even though Oh submitted the document on March 31. “This is not understandable.”
The Chosun Ilbo newspaper exclusively reported on Tuesday that the NEC once again made another biased decision. According to the report, the NEC concluded that a high school student who made a speech during a DP campaign rally for Park violated election law but decided to give the Democratic Party a written warning instead of taking legal measures as written in the law.
Kang, a high school junior, attended the rally on April 1st and said “I was born in 2004, and I do not have the voting right and cannot join the party yet but still came out here to show my support for Park.” He added that, “My sociology teacher in middle school told me that elections are about voting for the second-worst candidate, not the worst candidate, and I would like to ask you something – who is the worst candidate at this point?”
The voting age was lowered from 19 to 18 in 2019. People who are born before April 8, 2003, were able to participate in this year’s by-elections. Kang, who was born in 2004, does not have the right to vote or to participate in an election campaign. The DP reportedly admitted that they made a mistake about his age.
Article 60 of the Public Official Election Act (South Korea’s election law) doesn’t allow a minor under 18 years old to engage in an election campaign. Article 255 states that those who violate this “shall be punished by imprisonment for not more than three years or with a fine not exceeding six million won.”
During this election, the NEC banned civic groups and private citizens from using slogans and banners that include phrases such as “Double standard,” “Incompetence,” and “Why are we even conducting this election in the first place?” The NEC’s stated reason for banning these phrases was that they will make people think of the ruling Democratic Party (DP).
However, the NEC is being criticized for being biased since it does not seem to have the same standard for election campaigns run by the liberal faction. For example, the Traffic Broadcasting System, run by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, used a slogan saying “Let’s do 1” during this year’s election. “1” is pronounced “Il,” in Korean, which then would translate as “Let’s do the work,” but at the same time it would also be interpreted as “Let’s go ahead with 1,” referring to the DP candidate, who is candidate No. 1 on the ballot sheets.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties have concerns that the issue of the NEC’s neutrality will remain until next year’s presidential election. There are a total of 9 members of the commission, and 7 of them were appointed by President Moon Jae-in, Chief Justice Kim Myeong-su, and the DP. The term for the commission member is 6 years and these 7 people, who were all appointed during the Moon administration, will stay until next year’s election.
The controversy over the neutrality of the NEC deepened after President Moon appointed Cho Hae-ju, who worked for Moon’s campaign in the last presidential election, as the NEC’s standing commissioner. Moon pushed ahead with the appointment, although opposition parties refused to hold a confirmation hearing for Cho out of concern that he would not be capable of maintaining political neutrality.
Cho Sung-dae, an ardent Moon supporter, was appointed as a member of the NEC earlier this year. He was recommended by the DP, and this also was very controversial at the time.
Ahead of the Seoul mayoral by-election in 2011, he expressed his support for candidate Park Won-soon on Facebook, saying “Hurray, Park! All Koreans support him as the new leader of Seoul!” And when the government concluded that North Korea was responsible for the sinking of ROK Navy warship Cheonan in 2010, Cho said he did not believe it and used phrases like “surprising joke” and “lie.”
The NEC has been embroiled in controversy multiple times. During the April 15 general election last year, it allowed the DP to use its campaign slogan “Root out past ills!” while banning the opposition from using its slogan “Devastated livelihoods!” The NEC was also criticized for banning the use of the “Proportional Liberty Korea Party” as the name of the new party established by the Liberty Korea Party for the proportional representative election, saying that it could remind people of a certain party.
In December, Lee Jong-bae, a lawmaker from the PPP, proposed a bill that would ban people who were involved in politics during the past five years, including party members or those who worked on an election campaign, from becoming NEC commission members.
However, the bill is still pending in the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Security Committee. “When looking at the NEC’s interpretation of the election law in this election, they are based on the whether it is advantageous to the ruling party instead of the law,” Lee said in an interview with the Monthly Chosun magazine on Tuesday. “The NEC was established to manage elections and referendums fairly in accordance with the constitution, and the political neutrality of the members of the committee should be guaranteed as a matter of the highest priority.” He added that the National Assembly should pass the bill in the upcoming special session next month.
