by Park Haesook
Published 10 Apr.2023 16:05(KST)
Regarding the 3rd Nationwide Simultaneous Cooperative Head Election held on the 8th, 46 election offenders who engaged in illegal activities such as providing money and goods were caught in large numbers.
The Korea Coast Guard announced on the 10th that, after conducting joint crackdowns with the Election Commission and investigating reported cases targeting cooperative heads of 90 fisheries cooperatives nationwide over two months since January, a total of 23 cases involving 46 people were booked without detention.
Among the booked election offenders, 20 were candidates for fisheries cooperative heads, and among them, 9 were confirmed as elected.
By type of crime, the majority consisted of 22 people (47.8%) each for accepting money and entertainment and violating election methods, while the remaining 2 people (4.4%) were caught for black propaganda.
Candidate A for fisheries cooperative head is suspected of providing cooperative members with money amounting to hundreds of millions of won through campaign workers. Another fisheries cooperative head B, who ran for re-election, is suspected of using the cooperative's budget to provide money and goods to cooperative members.
A Korea Coast Guard official stated, "Considering that the statute of limitations for election offenders is six months from the election day, we plan to focus investigative efforts during the remaining period," adding, "In particular, we will continue gathering intelligence and cracking down on acts of providing money and goods under the pretexts of congratulations, consolation, or return gifts by candidates after the election day."
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