[Exclusive] Seocheon County Official Suspected of Election Law Violation for Arranging Policy Agreement for People Power Party Candidate

Official A: "It Was Simply Work-related Cooperation, Not Promotion or Disadvantage for a Particular Party"
Irregular Workers' Union: "Policy Agreement with People Power Candidate Arranged by Mr. A"

An official of grade 6 in Seocheon County, South Chungcheong Province, is facing allegations of violating the Public Official Election Act after reportedly arranging a policy agreement between the irregular workers' union and Kim Kiwoong, a preliminary candidate for county governor from the People Power Party.

According to The Asia Business Daily's coverage on May 8, the Seocheon County irregular workers' union recently sent written policy-related questionnaires to all candidates running for Seocheon County governor in the upcoming local elections.

Among the candidates, Yoo Seungkwang, a preliminary candidate from the Democratic Party, proposed a policy agreement to the irregular workers' union and, on May 7, signed an agreement with the union to "establish Seocheon as a place where labor is respected."

After learning about the policy agreement with the irregular workers' union, Mr. A, a grade 6 official in Seocheon County, reportedly arranged a similar agreement between the union and preliminary candidate Kim from the People Power Party, raising suspicions of a breach of political neutrality by a public official.

In particular, there are suspicions that Mr. A may have used his position as team leader of the irregular worker management department to exert undue influence over the election process.

Mr. B from the irregular workers' union stated, "Mr. A visited the union office and asked why we had not mentioned the policy agreement with candidate Yoo in advance," adding, "He also said that candidate Kim's side would like to hold a policy agreement ceremony as well."

He continued, "He suggested we take another photo with candidate Kim after the agreement and rewrite the questionnaire responses. The time for the policy agreement ceremony with candidate Kim was set for 3:30 PM, and Kim's side came to the union office, handed over the responses, and took another photo."

He further stated, "Mr. A did not come to the union office, but the policy agreement with candidate Kim was arranged by Mr. A."

Mr. A told The Asia Business Daily, "The information I conveyed to the irregular workers' union was simply for work-related cooperation, not to promote or disadvantage any particular party," adding, "As the union claims, I did not proactively coordinate these matters."

He also said, "As a department responsible for managing matters concerning irregular workers, I simply provided brief information and checked the situation for monitoring purposes."

An official from the Seocheon County Election Commission commented, "We need to thoroughly review the statements of those involved to ascertain the exact details."

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