Blank Holes in Candidate Registration and Reporting in the Local Elections

The first day of the candidate registration of the June 13 local elections, May 28, candidates reported all at once details of properties, tax, military service, and criminal records, but due to the unreasonable reporting standard and insincere attitudes of the candidates, the reporting was not implemented as smoothly as expected. This incomplete reporting is exposing a number of problems in inspecting candidates` qualities.

As for the criminal records of the candidates, which have been released for the first time in the civil servant elections, the reporting standard mandates reporting sentences requiring imprisonment. Because of the clause, cases of suspended sentences or punishment payment sentences against scrupulous crimes are not going to be exposed.

A candidate for local government head who registered candidacy in the day has sentenced a penalty payment in charge of receiving a large sum of bribery during the civil servant tenure, but the fact is not written in the criminal records submitted to the Election Committee.

Likewise, according to the properties reporting rule, candidates who have already disclosed the properties such as the incumbent local administration heads or resigned Reps. are allowed to list only the content of the official gazette, which makes hard for average voters to confirm the properties details.

Actually, sixteen candidates among forty-two candidates for wide-area local administration heads who finished the candidate registration as of three P.M. in the day and 177 candidates among 399 candidates for base-level local governments heads, almost the half of the candidates, have not disclosed the properties detail based on the standard.

Additionally, some candidates have `laundered occupations,` hiding actual jobs and borrowing the titles of civic group heads or presidents of private organization of regional research centers they own.

In other hand, among the 42 candidates competing for wide-area local administrations head and finished registration as of three P.M. in the day, 13 candidates, a three-to-one ratio, have never finished the military service, and eight candidates have criminal records.

In the case of candidates competing for base-level local government heads, sixty candidates among a total of 399 candidates, a 15 percent of the total, did not serve in the military, and 33 candidates, 8.2 percent of the total, had criminal records.

People can retrieve the status of properties, the military service, tax records, and criminal records declaration, along with the candidate registration in the day, by accessing to the official home page of the Central Election Committee (www.nec.go.kr).

In other hand, a total of 5,914 candidates submitted the candidate registration form till four P.M. in the day, recording an average competition ratio of 1.33 in the local elections, which will elect 4,415 civil service servants. As candidates registered in the day, the official election campaigning of sixteen days eventually kicked off.

Jeong-Hun Kim Jong-Hoon Lee jnghn@donga.com taylor55@donga.com