Assemblyman Lee Hyung-seok: "Saemaeul Geumgo Elections Must Be Mandatorily Entrusted to the Election Commission"

Partial Amendment Bills Proposed for the Act on Entrusted Elections by Public Organizations and the Saemaeul Geumgo Act

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Yoon Jamin] A bill has been proposed to mandate that the Saemaeul Geumgo Central Association chairman election and regional Geumgo chairman elections be conducted by mandatory delegation to the Election Commission.

On the 5th, Rep. Lee Hyung-seok (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Buk-gu Eul) announced that he had taken the lead in proposing partial amendments to the "Act on Delegated Elections of Public Organizations" and the "Saemaeul Geumgo Act."

The current Delegated Election Act classifies election task delegation organizations into "mandatory delegation" and "optional delegation," with the delegation status and the scope of management and supervision by the Election Commission differing depending on the classification.

For mandatory delegation organizations such as Nonghyup, the election of the central chairman and union heads must be mandatorily delegated to the Election Commission, whereas for optional delegation organizations like Saemaeul Geumgo, the decision to delegate elections is optional.

From 2015 to 2019, the Election Commission managed 2,907 delegated elections, but among these, only 31 were elections delegated by Saemaeul Geumgo.

Furthermore, even when Saemaeul Geumgo, an optional delegation organization, delegates elections, provisions restricting legal election campaign methods and donation activities during the election period do not apply.

This creates a blind spot in the Election Commission’s management and supervision of illegal election campaigns and the application of penalties under the Delegated Election Act.

For example, Saemaeul Geumgo first delegated the central chairman election to the National Election Commission in 2018, and the current chairman elected in that election is currently on trial after being indicted by the prosecution for allegations of distributing money and goods during the election period.

Rep. Lee explained that if the Election Commission’s management and supervision based on donation restriction regulations had been in place, it might have been possible to detect the issue in advance, which is a regrettable point.

Rep. Lee said, “Even Nonghyup, with 2.11 million members, delegates the central chairman and all union head elections to the Election Commission, but Saemaeul Geumgo, with 20 million members and assets exceeding 200 trillion won, is an optional delegation organization and lacks a neutral external management and supervision mechanism for elections,” adding, “The Saemaeul Geumgo central chairman and Geumgo chairman elections should be mandatorily delegated to the Election Commission to ensure fair election management without blind spots.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.