Police Agency Activates Election Offense Crackdown System Ahead of Next Year's General Election

The National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters will activate a full-scale election crime crackdown system starting from the 12th, ahead of the '22nd National Assembly Election' scheduled for April 10 next year.

From the 12th, when the registration of preliminary candidates begins, the police will organize 'Election Crime Investigation Task Forces' at police stations nationwide to strengthen intelligence gathering on various illegal activities related to the election. They plan to establish a close cooperation system with related agencies such as regional election commissions and prosecutors' offices to crack down on election crimes.

The police have designated the following as the 'Five Major Election Crimes' that seriously undermine the fairness of elections: ▲bribery ▲spreading false information ▲public officials' involvement in elections ▲election violence ▲illegal mass mobilization. The police will intensively crack down on these five major election crimes, pursuing not only those who commit illegal acts but also those who plan or order the crimes behind the scenes, as well as the sources of illegal funds, regardless of political party affiliation or status.

They also plan to strongly respond to acts that spread false information through social networking services (SNS), adversely affecting the public's right to make informed choices, as well as cyberterrorism crimes that weaken the foundation of fair elections, such as hacking and DDoS attacks on election commission and political party websites.

Given the limited investigation period due to the short statute of limitations (six months from the election day) characteristic of election crimes, the police aim for faster and more thorough investigations and plan to actively cooperate with the prosecution according to the revised investigation guidelines.

Yoon Hee-geun, Commissioner of the National Police Agency, said, "Next year's election will be the first National Assembly election since the establishment of the police's responsible investigation system following amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act," adding, "As the central investigative agency for election crimes, the police will fulfill their role and responsibility to support fair elections."

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