By Lee Tae-hoon
Staff reporter
Penalties imposed on voters for taking bribes from hopefuls or candidates dropped by 71.7 percent in the June 2 local elections, compared to the previous polls in 2006, the National Election Commission (NEC) said Wednesday.
Experts attributed the change to the revision of a law on Jan. 25 that penalizes bribe takers with a fine set at 50 times the amount of the kickbacks they received.
Earlier, the penalty ranged between 10 to 50 times, depending on the seriousness of the offense.
The total amount of fines that the NEC levied between the end of the last local elections in May 2006 and June 1 this year reached to 649 million won ($530,000), down from 2.3 billion won recorded during the preceding period.
The number of bribe cases plunged to 148, down from 1,369 in 2006.
The number of whistleblowers and the reward money granted also nosedived from 551 to 49, and 1.2 billion won to 161 million won, respectively, during the same period.
The total number of law violations related to the June 2 elections reached 3,666 as of Tuesday, down from 5,797 during the 2006 local polls, NEC officials said.