By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter
The National Election Commission (NEC) Thursday asked President Roh Moo-hyun to honor the Election Law, saying that he violated the law because he failed to maintain his political neutrality.
But the commission neither issued a warning nor indicated it would take legal action against Roh.
The ruling came out after its nine members held a lengthy deliberation on the president’s recent criticism of the two main presidential contenders of the Grand National Party (GNP) and their policies.
The election watchdog said the speech partially violated the Election Law, but did not violate the article governing campaigning for elections. As a result, the NEC will not take any (legal) steps with regard to it, the commission said.
During a four-hour speech before 1,000 supporters in Seoul last Saturday, Roh said it would be ``horrific’’ to see what would happen if the GNP won the December presidential election.
Roh said both Lee Myung-bak's inland waterway project and Park Geun-hye's South Korea-China train-ferry service project were insignificant compared to his government's Northeast Asian hub scheme.
The commission rejected the presidential office’s demand that Roh be allowed to offer additional written statements supporting that he did not violate the Election Law.
The commission said there was no precedent for accepting additional written statements for deliberation.
The GNP reiterated that Roh’s remarks were an apparent violation of the law.
Roh tried to take advantage of the speech to deal a blow to the GNP candidates, the party claimed.
However, Cheong Wa Dae denied the charges. ``As the GNP has not elected its party candidate yet, it does not make sense that the president violated the law,” an official said.
As long as the opposition party has not chosen the standard-bearer, Roh’s comments about certain politicians would not affect the race, he added.
Previously, it had said it would review legal action including an appeal to the Constitutional Court if the NEC came to an unreasonable conclusion.
The GNP responded that this was meant to put pressure on the NEC.
``Appealing to the Constitutional Court is necessary only when the actions in question are taken by a public power. As the NEC is not a public power, the commission’s decision is not subject to an appeal to the court,’’ said GNP spokeswoman Na Kyung-won.
Na, a former judge said that there was something behind the unusual reaction from the presidential office.
``It is without doubt that the presidential office reviewed the legal aspects of the issue and should be aware that it cannot bring the ruling to court. Therefore, the only possible scenario is that the presidential office was trying to pressure the election watchdog,’’ she said.
The GNP Tuesday filed complaints with the NEC against Roh and two of his key aides for the alleged violation of the law.
Roh, who quit the Uri Party early this year, urged all anti-GNP forces to unite and field one strong presidential candidate in the Dec. 19 election.
Under the current law, public servants are required to keep political neutrality while in office and their involvement in any campaigns is prohibited.