CEMC List Creates Stirs in the Political World

The Central Election Management Committee (CEMC), for the first time in Korean history, has made public an infamous list of candidates with criminal records who are running in the 16th General Election. The records showed for some candidates a severe history with imprisonment or more. Concerned with the likely sensation caused by the disclosure, apart from their not so proud tax and military records, both the ruling and oppostion parties are striving to come up with stratagies to either downplay or sensationalize the situation with more detailed explanations provided for their records, while they pour harsh criticism toward their rivals. With the clarified criminal records, both sides are trying to explain their record with a favorable story.

The opening candidacy list had 227 candidates in 65 voting districts. Among them 35 nominees (13 percent) were discovered to have a criminal record. The CEMC will now make public the criminal record of all 1178 candidates (137 in local districts, 138 nationwide).

Among the names on the CEMC black list is Lee Chang-bok, of the Millennium Democratic Party who had violated the National Security Law and is running in the Wonju Kangwon area. Another 13 candidates' (37 percent) crimes were related to violations against state affairs. Other misdeeds on the list included severe injury resulting in death, violence, graft, adultery, and false accusations. For any candidate who has committed a serious offense a heated debate is expected ahead.

The list contained 11 people from the MDP, 5 from the Democratic People's Party (DPP), 4 from the United Liberal Democrats (ULD), 3 from the Grand National Party (GNP), 2 from the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), and 1 from the Hopeful New Korea Party. The other 9 candidates were independent.

Many candidates, who had their name on the list, claimed that they were, "Fighting for democracy during the iron-fist era" at the time or were "Targetted for politically motivated reasons," concentrating their efforts on minimizing the lists influence on votors.

The DPP ordered candidates with a violation of state affairs on their records to open up and clarify the reasons. The MDP later announced that it would work to have the disclosure rule apply to all ranges of crimes.

The GNP insisted that the public might view the separted diclosure of criminal records as part of a stragedy from the ruling party's side to attract more attention and uproar. The GNP also stressed, "A clear boundary must be drawn between a democratic fighter and so called Ju-sa groups who supported North Korean policy."

by Kim Kyo-jun