Authorities Hesitate to Act on Civic Groups' Defeat Movement

The National Election Commission (NEC) and the prosecution have been driven into a corner over the election "defeat movement" staged by the Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Election (CAGE).

On March 2, the NEC sent an official letter calling for civic groups' cooperation in the name of Lee Yong-hoon, head of the NEC, to 13 organizations, including CAGE, the Citizens' Coalition for a Fair Election, and the Citizen's Coalition for Economic Justice. While CAGE have staged street campaigns and collected signatures, both prohibited by the existing law, and released another blacklist of unfit election candidates, the NEC's dilemma has been growing.

The NEC is nervous about CAGE's actions, because if the intentional violation of the law in the name of a defeat movement is ignored, it may affect NEC's basic electoral management of political parties and candidates.

The NEC's position is that it will take a firm position on illegal election activities. The NEC directed its local chapters to restrain illegal CAGE actions, and if a stronger deterrent is necessary, to invite the assistance of the police.

Despite such a plan, the NEC is troubled because the arrow-tip of public criticism is bound to be aimed at the NEC if public opinion decides that the NEC has made an issue of the civic groups' defeat movement while turning a blind eye to other illegal election campaigns.

A prosecution official said on April 3, "The defeat movement itself is legal, but if the method is illegal, we have no choice but to examine whether it requires legal action on our part."

The prosecution has clearly directed that if CAGE is engaged in large-scale rallies, door-to-door visits, street demonstrations, or signature-gathering activities, CAGE is breaking the law.

Nevertheless, it appears that the prosecution will be hard pressed to stamp out CAGE's violation of the law.

In connection with the CAGE street campaign in February which aimed to collect enough plaintiffs to file a lawsuit to nullify nominations, the NEC took the case to the prosecutor's office. However, the investigation is as yet unfinished. This is because CAGE staff have not responded to subpoenas, claiming that they are busy with the defeat movement. The prosecutors do not want to clash with civic groups by forcibly summoning and arresting related personnel.

The prosecution also feels reluctant to invoke its judicial rights because public opinion backs the civic groups' defeat movement.

Those both inside and outside the prosecution believe that the further course of action will only be determined after the general elections anyway, given the fact that the ballot is only nine days away.

by Park Seung-hee