PPP floor leader calls election watchdog a 'hotbed of corruption,' vows to appoint special auditor
Published: 06 Mar. 2025, 18:50
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- MICHAEL LEE
- [email protected]
Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI
![People Power Party floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong speaks at a meeting of his party's emergency steering committee at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 6. [YONHAP]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/06/db462866-f9e0-4b7f-9771-a06087ad8a77.jpg)
People Power Party floor leader Rep. Kweon Seong-dong speaks at a meeting of his party's emergency steering committee at the National Assembly in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 6. [YONHAP]
The floor leader of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) called the National Election Commission (NEC) a “hotbed of corruption” on Thursday and vowed to push for legislation to appoint a special auditor to investigate the watchdog, which has been rocked by allegations of nepotism in its hiring practices.
Speaking at a meeting of the PPP’s emergency steering committee at the National Assembly, Rep. Kweon Seong-dong said the bill is intended to “restore public trust in the NEC,” whose recruiters were accused by the Board of Audit and Inspection (BAI) of hiring children and acquaintances of current and former commission officials in a report released on Feb. 27.
The BAI report was released the same day that the Constitutional Court took the NEC’s side in a competence dispute filed by the election watchdog over the audit, which began in 2023.
The court ruled that the election watchdog 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.”
Nevertheless, political furor over the BAI’s findings led the NEC this week to suspend 10 officials who were allegedly hired because they are children of former and current commission officials.
At a hearing of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Safety Committee on Thursday, NEC Secretary General Kim Yong-bin told lawmakers that the watchdog does not plan to “let [the suspended officials] off the hook.”
![National Election Commission Secretary General Kim Yong-bin, far left, speaks at a hearing of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Safety Committee in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 6. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2025/03/06/1178ea58-db74-408d-9710-6a72d240b6d4.jpg)
National Election Commission Secretary General Kim Yong-bin, far left, speaks at a hearing of the National Assembly’s Public Administration and Safety Committee in Yeouido, western Seoul, on March 6. [NEWS1]
However, Kim implied the NEC could not simply fire nine of the 10 suspended officials because they were hired before the 2021 amendment to the State Public Officials Act, which allows the termination of civil servants found guilty of wrongdoing during their hiring process.
Former senior NEC officials Park Chan-jin and Song Bong-sup, who were both indicted in 2023 of pulling strings for their daughters to gain employment at the NEC, also told lawmakers that they would not force their children to resign.
Though NEC Chairman Rho Tae-ok apologized on Wednesday for the agency’s nepotistic hiring practices and promised reform, Kweon argued Rho’s statement “was essentially the same” as his previous apology in May 2023 and “showed that nothing has changed at the NEC in the past two years.”
Kweon also raised suspicions that the NEC “could reinstate the 10 suspended employees when public opinion has calmed down.”
“The NEC should not be allowed to rely on its status as an independent constitutional body to conduct its affairs in a corrupt and unfair manner,” Kweon said, arguing that a special auditor would be able to “raise the alarm” over wrongdoing within the commission.
Some PPP members have seized on the nepotism allegations against the NEC to call for changes in how elections are conducted.
Both Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and former PPP leader Han Dong-hoon have expressed support for a recent bill by Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok to abolish early voting altogether.
Oh has suggested keeping polls open for four days straight instead of holding a separate early voting period, while Han has similarly suggested extending the regular voting period.
However, some PPP officials who spoke to the JoongAng Ilbo on condition of anonymity expressed concern about how conservative attacks on state institutions such as the NEC might play with the public.
“From the outside, it might appear that we are conflating the NEC’s internal problems with allegations of election fraud,” said one official.
The PPP has thus far kept its distance from claims made by impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol that suspicions of external interference in Korean elections led him to declare martial law.
NEC Secretary General Kim testified during Yoon’s impeachment trial that the watchdog found no proof of election fraud.
BY MICHAEL LEE [[email protected]]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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