Illegal Practices During Campaign Period for 16th term General Election Found to

The Central Election Management Commission (CEMC) announced on March 13 that 2,843 incidences of illegal or irregular election practices were reported nationwide as of March 12, the last day of the official campaign period for the 16th general election.

This figure is four times higher than the 741 cases reported during 1996's 15th term election. Among the parties, the ruling Millenium Democratic Party (MDP) had the highest number of reported incidents with 837 cases, followed by the opposition Grand National Party (GNP) with 512, the United Liberal Democrats (ULD) with 344, and the Democratic People's Party (DPP) with 100 reported cases of election violations.

The CEMC decided to prosecute 221 cases and asked the prosecutors office to investigate 354 more cases. An official from the CEMC said, "Even though the campaign workers, not the candidates themselves, are accused of violating the election law, once they are found to be in conspiracy with the candidates, heavy penalties will be given."

"For those who are guilty of violating the election law, and have possible connections with the candidates, the CEMC will exercise the arbitration request rights. This move is to exterminate the candidates' wrong belief that winning the election justifies everything." added the CEMC official.

by Lee Jung-min