The Cat that Ate the Canary

Statistics showed that the election funds made public on the internet voluntarily by the candidates who ran in the 17th general election were 30 percent less – 30 billion won – than the amount actually reported to the National Election Commission.

Therefore, there are claims that the “Election Funds Daily Public Report System” that the election commission adopted from the 17th general election was ineffective and that some candidates have reduced the amount shown to the public.

“The total amount of spending that the candidates reported to the public from March 13 to April 15 was approximately 68,315 million won, 61,210 thousand won per candidate,” said the Commission. “However, according to the total amount in the spending reports handed in to the commission, the total amount was increased to 99 billion won, an increase of 45 percent, and 84 million won per candidate, an increase of 37 percent.”

The Uri Party publicly announced that they spent 21.9 billion won per candidate, but the amount reported to the commission was 30.2 billion won, an increase of 38 percent. The Grand National Party, which publicly stated that they spent 16.9 billion won, was found to have reported 24.6 billion won to the commission, increased by 45 percent; also, the Democratic Labor Party from 3.4 billon to 5.5 billon won, the Millennium Democratic Party from 10.9 billion to 15.5 billion won, and the United Liberal Democrats from 3.6 billion to 5.9 billion won.

Regarding the issue, the commission members and the candidates explained, “The amount made public on the Internet does not include the expensed amount after the election date, so they cannot be the same.” It means that they paid for the campaign workers and P.R. materials after the election.

If the claim is found to be true, some point out that the initial aim of adapting this system of publicizing the election funds, which strives to help voters to make a decision for the candidates during election, was degraded.

A candidate who ran in the 17th general election said, “There is no legal binding to the amount made public on the Internet, so reduction and fraudulence are possible,” and asserted, “There should be a revision in the system which only is troublesome to the candidates and does not work as an accurate underpinning of decision-making.”

Meanwhile, according to the commission report on the spending level of the 17th general election, the highest percentage went to printing materials with 27.4 percent of the 27.1 billion won. Following were 25.6 percent of 25.3 billion won to workers’ salary and management, 16.5 percent of 16.3 billion won to speeches and discussion, 10.1 percent of 10 billion won to media speeches, and others