Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo District, Denies Election Law Violation Allegations as "Untrue"

Former Candidate Mayor Park ① Visited Mapo District Office's Civil Service Center without wearing campaign clothes or sashes, ② Only exchanged formal greetings with staff, and ③ Stated that no election-related activities such as handing out business cards were conducted.

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] In response to reports on the afternoon of the 25th that "Park Gang-su, Mayor of Mapo District, is under police investigation for alleged violation of election laws," Mayor Park sent a statement clarifying the matter.

Regarding the report that "on May 25, ahead of the local elections, Mayor Park visited the Mapo District Office to greet employees," Park (then a candidate) stated that ▲he did not wear election campaign clothing or a sash while visiting the civil service office at Mapo District Office, ▲he only exchanged customary greetings with the staff, and ▲he did not engage in any election-related activities such as distributing business cards.

He explained that this was based on a prior phone inquiry to the Mapo District Election Commission about visiting government offices, which responded that "entry is not allowed outside the civil service office while wearing election campaign clothing."

Regarding the current Public Official Election Act prohibiting door-to-door campaigning, he explained that according to precedents and the Political Relations Law Case Examples published by the Election Commission, “visiting the community center meeting rooms and the respective government office rooms cannot be considered door-to-door visits prohibited under Article 106 of the Public Official Election Act.”

He emphasized that this matter was already resolved with a warning from the Election Commission before the police investigation.

Additionally, concerning the allegation of false information disclosure against Mayor Park, he refuted claims related to his May 24 broadcast interview where he said, “Our Mapo has built many community sports centers funded by taxpayers’ money, but they are not open on Saturdays, Sundays, and public holidays,” and “I think it is a really flawed system that they are closed on weekends and holidays.” The accuser claimed, “Mapo District Office operates a total of four public sports centers, all of which are open on Saturdays and Sundays,” and accused him of spreading false information to defeat then-Mayor Yoo Dong-gyun.

Mayor Park explained that in the May 24 interview titled “Listening to Candidates for the June 1 Local Elections” on a broadcasting station, he stated, “Mapo’s community sports centers are not open 365 days a year,” referring to all community sports facilities in the district, including those in each neighborhood.

At the time of the statement, only four neighborhoods, including Yonggang-dong, operated weekend community sports programs, while the other Mapo district community sports centers at neighborhood offices remained closed on weekends.

In other words, he was referring to the fact that the community sports centers in all 16 neighborhoods of Mapo were not fully open 365 days a year, reflecting the actual operation status of Mapo’s community sports centers, and argued that this cannot be considered false information aimed at defeating a specific individual.

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