ED Ensure neutrality, fairness
President should not try to influence elections
President Moon Jae-in cannot avoid criticism that he has been trying to control the country's election commission to create conditions favorable to ruling party candidates in major elections. Such criticisms have arisen since he appointed Cho Hai-ju, a special adviser to his 2017 presidential campaign headquarters, as a member of the National Election Commission (NEC) in January 2019.
Despite strong protest from opposition lawmakers, Moon pressed ahead with Cho's appointment without having a National Assembly confirmation hearing. It is improper to appoint a person with a political affiliation to the NEC. There is no doubt that such a figure like Cho could damage the neutrality and fairness of the state-run election agency.
Cho had been serving as the standing commissioner of the NEC since then. And his three-year term is to end Monday. It has been a fixed rule for any standing commissioner not to seek another term, so he submitted his resignation to the President last week. But Moon turned it down Thursday, breaking the rule and allowing Cho to remain in the NEC.
The presidential office said Moon decided to let Cho continue to serve as one of the nine commissioners of the election body, to ensure the stable operation of the NEC ahead of the March 9 presidential poll. But his decision was construed as a ploy to exercise his influence over the agency through Cho to help Lee Jae-myung, the presidential candidate of the governing Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), win the election.
However, Moon's attempt to keep Cho in the NEC has fallen apart due to collective action by all 2,900 civil servants of the agency. They issued a statement Friday, calling for Cho to step down. He caved in to their demand and President Moon accepted his resignation finally. The collective action was unprecedented for the NEC which was created in 1963. This means that Moon has gone too far in controlling the NEC's management to influence elections in favor of the DPK's candidates.
Cho, for his part, knows better than anyone else that his presence in the NEC could hamper the commission's efforts for clean and fair elections. After serving the NEC for 32 years, he became a political science professor at Kookmin University in 2016. Then he joined Moon's campaign headquarters as an adviser. His return to the NEC as standing commissioner stirred up controversy over his relationship with Moon.
Now his departure from the agency does not seem likely to end the controversy once and for all. President Moon is likely to continue to control the election commission by letting a pro-government NEC commissioner succeed Cho. In that case, the NEC might not manage the upcoming presidential poll and the June 1 local elections in a clean and fair manner.
We urge President Moon and his government to keep neutrality in the campaign process to ensure free and fair elections. Otherwise, the country cannot be a mature democracy in a true sense.