'Guri Mayor Recall Over Taxpayer Money Wasted After Believing Suspicious Reports'... Signature Campaign Halted

Guri City Election Commission Notifies Guri City of 'Withdrawal of Signature Campaign' Fact

[Captured by Guri City Election Commission]

[Asia Economy Reporter Ra Young-cheol] The 'Recall Petition Campaign for the Mayor of Guri' triggered by allegations surrounding Mayor Ahn Seung-nam of Guri City has been halted at the voluntary withdrawal request of the recall petition initiators.

In January, a terrestrial broadcaster's report on 'Guri City, allegations related to recruitment' sparked anger and resentment among Guri citizens.

However, as Guri City took legal action based on facts, it was confirmed over time that the reported allegations were merely exaggerated claims with weak evidence.

Instead, there emerged a prevailing local sentiment criticizing that a specific group and individuals centered around local politicians known as the petition initiators had maliciously exploited the report for particular purposes.

With the local elections approaching next year, citizens appear to value raising issues based on clear facts to clarify allegations rather than typical political attacks that slander and corner the incumbent mayor with unfounded accusations. This reflects the civic awareness emphasizing the value and intent of the petition.

Guri City announced on the 18th, "We have been notified by the Guri City Election Commission that the Guri Mayor Recall Promotion Committee (Co-Chairman/Jeong Gyeong-jin) has decided to suspend the recall petition campaign."

The recall petition campaign for the Guri mayor, which began on May 3, was reportedly halted due to 'insufficient grounds for the petition.'

There are also claims that the reasons for the recall petition were solely the allegations reported by the media, with no reasons related to city administration policies.

In particular, there are strong voices of criticism pointing out that the recall petition campaign intensified local conflicts and wasted residents' tax money.

According to the city, following the application for the certificate of the representative petitioner, the Guri City Election Commission requested over 300 million KRW from Guri City for managing the recall vote in April.

The management expenses must be borne by the local government regardless of whether the recall is successful. Guri City paid approximately 309 million KRW from the city's contingency fund to the election commission on the 17th of last month for recall vote management expenses.

About 40 million KRW of the total cost was used for managing the petition campaign, and the remainder will be refunded.

Under the current 'Recall of Residents Act,' anyone can file a recall petition for 'violation of laws or illegal and unjust acts.' Also, since budget is required for the petition, there is no proper sanction method even if it is maliciously abused for specific purposes.

Because of this, there are calls to require petitioners to reimburse costs incurred if the recall vote is not even initiated due to insufficient signatures.

A civic group in Guri criticized, "The recall system has been politically abused contrary to its original purpose, only fueling conflicts and wasting citizens' tax money," adding, "We will hold a one-person protest in front of the offices of the petition representatives and related parties to hold them accountable."

Meanwhile, since the introduction of the recall system in 2006, there have been about 60 recall attempts, but only 9 votes have actually been held, and among them, only 2 local councilor recalls proceeded to vote counting.

Because cases where signature requirements are not met or where less than one-third of eligible voters participate in the recall vote result in no vote counting, there are criticisms that only budgets have been wasted, leading to even calls questioning the usefulness of the recall system.

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