Supreme Court: "Pre-election COVID-19 Support Payments Are Not Illegal Acts"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that local governments distributing COVID-19 disaster relief funds to residents just before the 21st National Assembly election cannot be considered a violation of the Public Official Election Act.

On the 19th, the Supreme Court's Special Division 1 (Presiding Justice Park Jeong-hwa) dismissed the election invalidation lawsuit filed by Jang Dong-hyeok, former chairman of the Daejeon City Party Committee affiliated with the People Power Party, and Kim So-yeon, former chairwoman of the Yuseong District Party Committee, against the Daejeon Yuseong District Election Commission.

Former candidate Jang and others filed the lawsuit claiming that the COVID-19 disaster relief funds distributed ahead of last year's general election constituted illegal acts in the election process by a third party. They argued that the disaster relief funds distributed just before the election amounted to money politics. At that time, Daejeon Yuseong District provided emergency disaster livelihood support funds to households with incomes below 100% of the median income.

However, the court ruled that the act of distributing disaster relief funds did not violate election-related regulations. The court stated, "There is no illegal act in the election process by a third party in the general election, and no violation of election-related regulations," adding, "Without further examination of whether it influenced the election results, the claims by former Chairman Jang and others are unfounded."

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