President Roh Moo-hyun Thursday filed a petition with the Constitutional Court to nullify election law clauses outlawing presidential political remarks and activities ahead of elections, the presidential office said.

The unprecedented constitutional petition by the head of state was presented in Roh's capacity as an ordinary citizen, said the office.

"The National Election Commission's (NEC) recent verdicts on President Roh's violations of the election law infringed on the president's freedom of political expression as an individual,"
Yonhap news agency quoted Cheong Wa Dae spokesman Cheon Ho-seon as saying.

"The president, as a politician elected to a government post, is allowed to engage in free political activities under a law governing government officials. In a contradictory situation,
however, the president's freedom of political expression was restrained by the ninth clause of the election law."

Cheon said the situation here is unique among advanced democratic countries in that the president, who is elected through political activities and popular elections, is subjected to legal constraints on political remarks.

"The ninth clause of the election law, in particular, is very ambiguous and its expanded interpretation clashed with the reality.... Thus the president decided to go to the Constitutional Court to remove such an unreasonable situation and advance the nation's politics," said the spokesman.

The NEC ruled on Monday that Roh again violated the election law clause stipulating political neutrality by government officials by publicly attacking the main opposition Grand National Party and its leading presidential candidates.

The national election watchdog withheld its judgment on whether Roh violated a more critical clause of the election law banning pre-electioneering, but delivered what appeared to be an ultimatum, as it indicated that any further act of pre-electioneering by the president would be brought to the prosecution.

Embarrassed by the ruling, Cheong Wa Dae vowed Tuesday to be respectful, but clearly displayed its resentment by indicating that the NEC's verdict on Roh's brush with the law may have stemmed from the nation's "underdeveloped political culture."