11 held on illegal campaigning

Police reported 11 campaign law violations yesterday. The violators included nine persons allegedly distributing illegal campaign materials and two who destroyed official election placards and visited homes to solicit votes.

An election observer at a polling station in Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang province, was arrested yesterday morning on a charge of encouraging voters entering the polling station to choose a particular candidate.

Around 1 a.m. yesterday a university student was arrested in a residential area in the Dongdaemun district of Seoul on a charge of distributing campaign materials that denounce a particular candidate. The police also arrested a man on a charge of destroying eight campaign posters in Juan-dong, Incheon, around midnight yesterday.

From Wednesday to Thursday morning the police were on high alert for any possible illegal campaigning. More than 170,000 officers were dispatched to the 13,471 polling stations and 244 vote-counting centers nationwide.

The National Police Agency said as of yesterday 1,388 people had been charged with campaign law violations in the 2002 presidential election, which is 3.5 times more than in the 1997 presidential election.

by Yoon Chang-hee