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Parties clash over NEC's future amid nepotism scandal

Published: 03 Mar. 2025, 19:02

MICHAEL LEE
[email protected]

The headquarters of the National Election Commission in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, on Feb. 28. [NEWS1]

The country's main political parties laid out dueling proposals regarding future oversight of the National Election Commission (NEC) on Monday amid a growing controversy surrounding nepotism in the commission's hiring practices.

The Board of Audit and Inspection of Korea (BAI) announced last week that the NEC’s regional branches violated state hiring guidelines 878 times between 2013 and 2022 by giving preference to the children and acquaintances of NEC officials.

The state auditor said it asked the commission to take disciplinary action against 32 former and current officials for abusing their positions, which it said had “severely compromised the fairness of the recruitment process for public officials.”

Rep. Park Soo-min of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) told reporters on Monday that her party intends to push a bill to “restore public trust” in the NEC by appointing a special inspector to audit its election-related systems.

Her call for greater scrutiny into the NEC echoed unsubstantiated claims by President Yoon Suk Yeol during his impeachment trial that recent elections were tainted by external interference.

The PPP also plans to introduce confirmation hearings for those nominated to head the NEC in light of the BAI’s findings.

In a report released on Thursday, the state auditor revealed that NEC officials procured jobs for family members and acquaintances through recruitment drives for employees with prior work experience, which do not require candidates to take state qualification examinations.

The BAI found that NEC recruitment officers not only hired children of high-ranking and mid-level officials without posting job openings, but also gave such candidates a leg up in the hiring process by ensuring they were interviewed by employees with close ties to their families.

The NEC challenged the audit by filing a competence dispute with the Constitutional Court, claiming that the BAI’s investigation infringes on the commission’s right to independently conduct its affairs, including personnel management.

The headquarters of the National Election Commission can be seen through its front gate in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, on Feb. 28. [YONHAP]

On Thursday, the court ruled that the NEC is an autonomous constitutional body, not an administrative agency, and that the BAI’s audit of the NEC’s hiring practices “violated its independence as guaranteed by the Constitution and the Election Commission Act.”

Nonetheless, PPP spokesperson Cho Yong-sool argued on Monday that the commission’s independent status under the Constitution “is not tantamount to immunity from being held accountable” and advocated the appointment of a special inspector to “end the chain of corruption inside the NEC.”

That proposal is certain to meet resistance from the liberal Democratic Party (DP), which submitted a bill on Friday to enshrine the NEC’s immunity from future probes.

The bill would amend the Act on Public Sector Audits by adding the NEC to the list of government bodies exempted from BAI probes, which currently include the National Assembly, the judiciary and the Constitutional Court.

DP Rep. Jeon Yong-gi, who was the main sponsor of the bill, said the change is necessary to “guarantee the independence of the NEC” and forestall future competence disputes between the commission and the state auditor.

BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]